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Flyers looking rebound after squandering Game One

Apr 26, 2008 - 1:35 PM Philadelphia at Montreal 7:00 pm EDT Eastern Conference Semifinals Canadiens lead, 1-0

MONTREAL (Ticker) - If the Philadelphia Flyers are going to advance any further in this postseason, they will need to find a way to hang on to the lead.

The sixth-seeded Flyers will try bounce back from another tough loss and even their Eastern Conference semifinal series at one win apiece Saturday when they visit the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens for Game Two.

Alexei Kovalev scored his second goal of the game with 29 seconds remaining in the third period and Tom Kostopoulos tallied 48 ticks into overtime, lifting the Canadiens to a 4-3 triumph over the Flyers in Game One on Thursday.

Andrei Kostitsyn also scored and rookie Carey Price made 30 saves for Montreal, which also overcame a two-goal deficit after the opening period. It was the third time in the playoffs that Philadelphia squandered a two-goal lead.

The Canadiens, who swept the four-game series against the Flyers during the regular season, were trailing by a goal before Philadelphia's Mike Richards received a kneeing penalty with 69 seconds remaining in the third.

With Price on the bench for an extra attacker, Montreal took advantage to forge a 3-3 tie.

"If it was a knee, I obviously didn't mean to," said Richards, who led the Flyers with 75 points this season. "I thought it was my shoulder, but I haven't seen the video."

Flyers center Jeff Carter then broke his stick on the faceoff in the right circle, allowing Canadiens captain Saku Koivu to get the puck back to Kovalev. The Russian snapped a shot into the top right corner of the net for his 41st career postseason goal, sending the game to overtime.

"That's what hockey is all about - shoot the puck and score," Kovalev said. "I almost went to the net, but as soon as I saw Saku putting that second effort, I was just hoping that the puck would come out somewhere. It came out in perfect timing and I was able to put the shot in."

Less than a minute after the opening faceoff in overtime, All-Star defenseman Andrei Markov blasted a shot from the left point that was stopped by Martin Biron. After Kostopoulos grabbed the rebound and was denied, he got a second chance and deposited the puck into the net.

"It was incredible to come back after being down a couple of times," Kostopoulos said. "He made a huge save on my first shot, and I was lucky enough to get the second rebound. ... (Steve) Begin and (Bryan) Smolinski did a great job tying up their men in front of the net and I was able to get two whacks at it."

R.J. Umberger, Jim Dowd and Joffrey Lupul tallied for Philadelphia, which played its second overtime game in three days and third overall this postseason.

"It was tough, but our team hasn't done things the easy way," Carter said of Thursday's loss. "We always seem to make things hard on ourselves, but we'll be ready to go in Game Two."