On The Brink Of Another Broom: Penguins Win 4-1, Lead Series 3-0

Now that they are up 3 games to none in their Eastern Conference Final series against the Flyers, the Penguins will tell you that the 4th win of their series will be the toughest to obtain.

Don't believe them.

The Flyers chance to make anything out of this series was in game 3 last night, but the game ended the way the first 2 have -- with the Penguins scoring 4 goals and walking away with a victory. The only difference this time was that it happened in Philadelphia so all their local fans wearing queer orange T-shirts could go home with their heads down.

"Why not us?", the T-shirts said.

Because the Penguins are significantly better than the Flyers, that's why.

Ryan Whitney scored his first goal of the playoffs -- a power play marker -- 5 minutes into the game on a break when a centering pass went off Flyer defenseman Jason Smith and behind goaltender Martin Biron. A few minutes later, Marion Hossa scored his first goal of the night on a beautiful play, stickhandling side to side around one Flyer player at their blueline (Jeff Carter, I believe), before doing it again in front of Flyer defenseman Lasse Kukkonen and then wristing a wicked shot low to the far side past Biron.

Although Philadelphia winger and Pittsburgh hometown boy R.J. Umberger cut the lead in half a few minutes later with his first goal of the series (after 8 against Montreal in round 2) by capitalizing on a loose puck in front of the Penguins goal after a failed wraparound attempt by Flyers winger Vinny Prospal, the Penguins just locked down defensively after that. After two periods, the Flyers had eight -- that's right, EIGHT -- total shots.

About half way through the 3rd period, Mr. Giveaway, Flyer 4th line winger Steve Downie, must have started to feel like he was in the movie Groundhog Day, because he gave the puck away on a play that led to the goal. Malkin rushed the puck up ice and, after he and Sykora both got it to the goal, Ryan Malone swatted the rebound through Biron's legs for a 3-1 lead. The Flyers didn't threaten the rest of the way and Hossa sealed it with an empty netter -- his 8th goal of the playoffs in 12 games.

So much for his reputation of not scoring when it counts??

The Penguins probably played their best defensive game of the series. Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was quoted after the game as saying he felt "useless" out there.

Biron looked just about as useless for the Flyers. Although everyone wanted to annoit him as the 2nd coming of Ken Dryden coming into this series, despite having by far and away the worst statistics of any goalie left in the playoffs coming into this round, he's done nothing to give his team a realistic chance of winning. Although Hossa made some nice moves and shot through a defenseman on his first goal, Biron was out of position on the shot. In addition, the 3rd goal by Malone -- again, right along the ice between Biron's legs -- is something he can't allow. You have to lockdown the low part of the net on plays around the cage like that. You don't see Fleury letting up those kind of goals.

The Flyers need a miracle that's only occurred twice in the entire history of the National Hockey League to win this series. They haven't shown anything in the entire series to indicate it will happen again.

To wrap up, a few notable statistics:

1) The Penguins have outscored the Flyers 12-5 in this series so far;

2) The Penguins have scored 3 or more goals in 10 of their 12 playoff games;

3) The Penguins are the best defensive team in the playoffs, with a 1.83 team GAA;

4) The Penguins have only trailed in approximately 10% of their playoff minutes to-date;

5) Only 3 other teams in the history of this great game have ever opened the playoffs by winning 11 of their first 12, and it hasn't happened in 25 years.

Right now, it looks like the Penguins are on a collision course with the Detroit Red Wings for the Stanley Cup.

I think the last Pittsburgh sports team who played for a championship in that city did pretty well ....