The 2004 Yankees say hello

This would happen to the Bruins, that's all I can think after last night's utterly predictable 2-1 Game 6 loss to the Flyers at the Wachoiva Center.

Tomorrow night at the TD Garden, the B's will seek to avoid becoming the fourth team in pro sports to ever give up a 3-0 lead in the playoffs.

For the second straight game, Philly came out fast and scored early as Mike Richards flipped one past Tuukka Rask (25 saves) at 6:58 in the first period. Simon Gagne and Dan Carcillo assisted.

Late in the first period and for most of the second period, Boston carried the play and started to get plenty of possession in the Flyers' zone. They put 31 shots on Michael Leighton but in his first NHL playoff start, he didn't have to do too much.

When Danny Briere put a power play goal off Rask and into the net at 16:20, you just knew this series was going the distance. Richards and Claude Giroux assisted on the goal that Rask should have stopped, but you can't fault him since he made some top-notch saves to keep the Bruins in it.

Ville Leino got a gift of a penalty shot in the third period but Rask stuffed him, a nice play that seemed mostly meaningless at the time.

With one minute left in the game and Rask pulled, Milan Lucic tied it thanks to some grunt work around Philly's net. Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman assisted on the goal that would have been awesome if it came oh I don't know, in any of the earlier 59 scoreless minutes for Boston.

So here we are: there's not much to say. Win tomorrow night and the Bruins will make their first Eastern Conference Finals since 1992 and believe it or not, they'll have home ice since the Canadians took care of the Penguins in Game 7 last night.

Lose and they'll be the laughingstock of sports for a long, long time. No pressure boys.

This one's for you Matt Cooke (you scumbag)

After missing nearly two months of action thanks to Matt Cooke's cheap shot (that went unpunished by the NHL), Bruins center Marc Savard returned this afternoon and wrote a fairytale chapter to what has been a terrible ordeal for him.

He scored the game-winner in overtime as the B's beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 at TD Garden in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Going into the series, the one thing that seems to distinguish the two teams is that Tuukka Rask is the hottest goalie left in the NHL playoffs and Flyers goalie Brian Boucher is a journeyman scrub (despite his fine play against the Devils).

Boston choked away a pair of two-goal leads (3-1, 4-2) but that was soon forgotten as their best offensive player ended it with a turnaround shot at 13:52 from Dennis Wideman and Zdeno Chara.

As expected, it was a very physical game with both teams not afraid to throwing their bodies all over the ice.

Steve Begin scored his first career playoff goal 2:39 into the game from Patrice Bergeron and Mark Recchi. Any offense from the fourth line is a big plus and to see a bum like Begin score is similar to a solar eclipse.

Bergeron doubled the lead at 12:54 of the first period with an assist from Wideman.

Ryan Parent opened the scoring for Philly at 7:38 in the second period from Mike Richards and Arron Asham.

Miroslav Satan cashed in on a power-play just over four minutes later. Johnny Boychuk and Wideman.

At 15:48 Chris Pronger got the Flyers closer (3-2) with a power play goal from Kimmo Timonen and Richards.

David Krejci made it 4-2 in the third period with assists from Satan and Milan Lucic. It looked to be over at that point but the stubborn Flyers kept the pressure on and it paid off as Richards and Daniel Briere tied it up.

Boucher (41 saves) and Rask (32 saves) made some outstanding saves in overtime, with Boucher making a bunch of A+ stops in the early going of OT. Boston outshot Philadelphia 15-4 in overtime.

The B's will try to hold serve at home in Game 2 on Monday night.