philadelphia flyers
In his first game back since he broke his toe in Game 4 of the Philadelphia Flyers’ opening round series, the left-winger came through with an overtime winner on Friday night at the Wachovia Center to give his team a 5-4 win and force Game 5 in the Eastern Conference semifinal series against the Boston Bruins.
Gagne’s goal came at 14:40 in the first overtime period and lifted the fans dressed mostly in orange off their seats.
“It’s a good ending,” said Gagne, who wasn’t expected to return in this series. “I can’t ask for more [than] to be able to come back early a little bit in the series.”
Matt Carle, who had four assists, fed Gagne for a redirect from the top of the crease for the winner.
“I tried to challenge him,” Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask said. “I was expecting that kind of pass, but it’s tough to recover with your pads. I tried to get my glove under it.”
Ville Leino, Chris Pronger, Danny Briere and Claude Giroux had the other goals in the winning effort, and Brian Boucher made 37 saves.
Game 5 is set for Monday night in Boston.
It was 42-year-old Mark Recchi, a former Flyers star, who made it a little more difficult for seventh-seeded Philadelphia to earn that Game 5 appearance.
The Flyers were leading 4-3 late in the third after Leino scored his first career playoff goal — a tip-in off a Pronger point shot that sailed over the glove of Rask — but Recchi lit the lamp for his second of the game with 31.5 seconds to go in regulation to force overtime.
Recchi did quite a job of deflating the energy of the Flyers fans, first getting Boston on the board in the opening period when he jumped on a rebound from a Patrice Bergeron shot to make it 1-0.
Rask, who’s been the story of these playoffs for the Bruins, looked ordinary on Philadelphia’s opening goal in the final minute of the first period, a Briere snapper from the top of the circle that went through his legs.
Otherwise, Rask was his usual steady self, stopping 34 shots. He had little chance when the Flyers made it 2-1 after Carle floated a pass across the blue-line to Pronger, whose slapshot went in off a skate.
Minutes later, Giroux knocked one in after Scott
