By Madison Buffardi
Staff Writer

The playoff season had begun with our Philadelphia Flyers going head to  head with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins held onto spot number four in the division standings while the Flyers stand in spot number 5.

The first game played on Wed April 11 didn’t look good for the flyers, who were down by 3. The team pulled through and came back winning the game 4-3 with a goal by Voracek in over time.

The next game on Fri April 13 also started out looking bad for the flyers, losing a goal to the penguins in the first 15 seconds of the game. The game ended in the Flyers favor however, with a score of 8-5. Both Claude Giroux and rookie Sean Coutierer scored a hat trick in this game.

Game 3, played on Sun April 15 started the same as the first two, with the Flyers down in the first period. This game was probably the most physical game played in the series between the Flyers and Penguins.

With still 8 minutes left in the first period nine total penalties had already been called and three separate fights had broke out. After a 55 minute first period Flyers’ Kimmo Timonen and Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang and Arron Asham had all been sent to their locker rooms to sit out the rest of the game.

That was just the beginning. By the end of the game there was a total of 148 penalty minutes. There were 6 total goals scored in the first period and 12 total in the game. The game ended with the Flyers winning again, 8-5.

Flyers came in to game four very confident and some may say now, too confident. Pittsburgh was trying to hold on as tight as they could to the series since losing this game would mean an end of the playoff season for them.

At the end of the first period the score was 4-3 penguins. In an effort to save the game for the Flyers, their goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled from the net in the beginning of the second period and replaced with the other goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

But, by the end of the second period the score was 9-3 Penguins. The Flyers just couldn’t come back from a six-goal deficit and lost the game, 10-3.

Game 5’s first period ended with Philadelphia in the lead 2-1. The Penguins came back second period with two goals, making the score 3-2. There were no more goals scored throughout the game. And the Pittsburgh Penguins won 3-2. This meant the series would take us to game 6, where the Penguins could win again and tie up the series or Flyers could win and move on to the next round.

In the first 32 seconds of the game Philadelphia Flyer’s Claude Giroux scored the first goal. Scott Hartnell scored a second goal before the first period ended. Erik Gustafsson, Danny Briere, and Brayden Schenn scored additional goals in the game. Evgeni Malkin scored the only Penguins goal during a power play in the second period. The game ended with the Flyers winning 5-1 and moving on to round 2 of the series.

The second round of the playoffs brought the New Jersey Devils to Philadelphia. The first game of the series was on Sun April 29 after a week long break. The rust may have been coming off the Flyers’ skates in the first period because the Devils were simply out skating and out playing the Flyers and they led 1-0 after the first twenty minutes.

However, Flyers’ coach Peter Laviolette must have had another one of his famous pep talks because the Flyers came out strong in the second and third periods and the score was 3-3 at the end of regulation. Forward Danny Briere continued his playoff magic. Briere’s game winning overtime goal was called back due to an illegal kicking motion only for him to put the puck into the goal a few minutes later, resulting in a 4-3 Flyers’ victory and a 1-0 lead in the East Semifinals.