Phil Sheridan: Boucher stands tall against Bruins

BOSTON - The clock said two minutes. It must have felt more like two years to Brian Boucher.

As overtime opened, it looked as if the Boston Bruins were on fast-forward and someone hit the pause button on the Flyers. Boucher faced more shots than Warren Beatty in the last scene of Bonnie and Clyde, and they were good shots, too. Mark Recchi alone had several chances to end Game 1.

But Boucher was great, and that's one of the reasons the Flyers should come away from this overtime loss feeling as if they can win this second-round series.

"He was awesome," Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger said. "He played very well. That overtime, the first 21/2 minutes I was out there, he made countless unbelievable saves. It is not easy for a goaltender to follow through traffic and through guys in front."

Before Saturday, Boucher had been very good in the postseason, but his performance seemed tied to that of the team in front of him. When the Flyers' defense was sound, so was Boucher. He made enough of the tough saves to nail down four wins in five games against the New Jersey Devils.

This was different. The Bruins got 15 shots on Boucher in the first period. He allowed two goals on shots he could do little about. After the Flyers tightened up their game in the second and third periods, the Bruins summoned a new wave of fury for the overtime.

"I tell the team it doesn't matter what happened before then," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "A win's a win."

The Bruins played as if the overtime could erase all their mistakes and transgression in blowing leads of 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2. The Flyers could not match the intensity.

"They were the more desperate team in overtime," Boucher said, putting it mildly.

The Bruins took seven official shots in the first 2 minutes, 12 seconds of overtime. Marc Savard's game-winner with 6:08 left was Boston's 15th shot of the OT period. The Flyers took four shots in the same stretch.

So they wasted legitimate greatness from Boucher and from Danny Briere, whose game-tying goal came on the kind of singular effort few players on either team have the skill to pull off. Briere, who also assisted on Mike Richards' power-play goal four minutes earlier, rushed from his own zone, split two defensemen, fired a backhander, and then scored on the rebound.

It was a spectacular play, the kind fans would be marveling at forever if it had led to a victory. Instead, the Flyers wasted the opportunity Briere gave them and Boucher preserved for them. Thanks to the time-warp goalie and the speedy little center, the Flyers could have stolen this one. They gave it back instead.

"Which stinks," Pronger said, "because we came back and because we played a pretty good second and a very good third."

That is not something they can afford to get away with more than once and expect to win a playoff series.

For all that, you came away from this game believing the Flyers are perfectly capable of winning this series. Boucher is one reason. The Flyers' power play is another. Boston's penalty-killing unit was impregnable in its first-round upset of Buffalo. The Flyers scored two power-play goals, one by Pronger and one by Richards.

In a series that figures to become more physical - there were a lot of unsettled scores after Game 1 - a strong power play could make all the difference.

Case in point: Pronger and Recchi's third-period tussle led to penalties for both. But Recchi was assessed a double minor, giving the Flyers a power play that led to Richards' goal and breathed life into the Flyers.

"It's playoff hockey," said Pronger, who managed to separate Recchi from his helmet without drawing a second penalty. "You are going to have battles in the trenches and in front of the net. I am sure there will be more."

Pronger can be sure because he creates his share of mayhem out there. But he brings perspective to his own team even as he brings some pain to the opponent. By the end of a best-of-seven series, the result of Game 1 will be a distant memory. The dominoes that fall after this will decide things.

"It depends how we react," Briere said.

"As the game went on," Pronger said, "we got better and we started to play within our system. We can take a lot of that and use it for Game 2. . . . It is something that we can build on - that is for sure."

The Bruins have plenty to build on, too. They got an emotional lift from Savard's heroics after a two-month layoff. Most important, in the presence of greatness from Boucher and Briere, they got a win.