With the Devils up two goals and with 25 minutes left to play in Game 2 at the First Union Centre, the visiting team was a confident bunch. They were the best defensive team in the NHL, with a blueline tougher to penetrate than the walls of Fort Knox. They were about to head home with a commanding 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Final. They thought they were set. They thought they could silent both the crowd and the Flyer offence.
They were wrong.
The Flyers scored three goals, one by Eric Desjardins in the dying minutes of the second and then two more by Rick Tocchet and Daymond Langkow to give them a 4-3 victory, tying the series at one.
Those four goals were the most the Devils have allowed in the postseason this year.
The Devils know all about momentum and what it can do to a series. They may have let the proverbial cat out of the bag with their performance in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semi-final.
The rally certainly helped the Philly's mentality, according to Tocchet, the Game 2 star.
"Everybody had written us off," he said. "Maybe this game gets us back in. No one won the series, but this gets us back in the frame of mind that we can beat them."
As the best-of-seven series switches to the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, N.J. tonight (7:30 p.m. EDT, CBC), the Devils will try to revert to the tight, disciplined play which made them advance this far into the playoffs.
A lot of attention has been focused on the physical play of the two teams, as the Flyers don't just try to find a hole through the defence, but aim to annihilate it by dishing out bone-crushing checks and crashing the net.
"I think it's a style of hockey that we like to play," said Flyers centre Keith Primeau. "We want to make contact. That's how we play, we create turnovers that way."
Devils coach Larry Robinson wasn't pleased with the loss, stating the team deviated from its game plan.
"I feel more that we lost the game than they won the game. I felt we had pretty good control of it and just got away from what we have been doing all along," he said.
Both teams will be without a forward, as injuries affected both teams in a rough and tumble game that saw numerous checks, stick work and face washes.
Langkow is doubtful to dress for the Flyers. He suffered a concussion early in the third period, when he collided with New Jersey defencemen Scott Stevens. His status is listed as day-to-day.
While the New Jersey organization is being tight-lipped with its information, rookie John Madden is probably lost for the rest of the series following a knee-on-knee collision with Primeau with three minutes remaining in the last game. The man affectionately known as "Mad Dog" by his teammates, was a key player on the team's penalty-killing unit.
Career minor leaguer Steve Brule will take his place in the lineup.
Philadelphia has a history of not playing well in New Jersey, going just 4-22-2 in their last five years, but that doesn't concern Flyers head coach Craig Ramsay.
"We think we can play against anybody anywhere," he said. "I don't care where the game is. I don't think it bother our players, they believe in what they're doing.
"Believe me, our players aren't going over statistics from two years ago, nobody cares."
Maybe he's right.
