Philadelphia, PA

Strange is a good way to describe the Eastern Conference Semifinal series the Philadelphia Flyers lost in five games to the New Jersey Devils.

The Flyers scored first in each of their four losses in the series. Bizarre. But nothing was stranger than the goal, which was the turning point of the Devils 3-2 win over the Flyers.

With the score knotted at 1, Ilya Brygalov attempted to clear the puck from out in front of his goal area. However the Flyers goalie shot it off of the shaft of Dave Clarkson's stick. The gritty Devil charged Bryzgalov but didn't expect to score.

In fact, after the puck hit his stick and bounced between Bryzgalov's legs, Clarkson had no idea that he scored. "I had no idea that it was in until the crowd starting booing," Clarkson said. "I was just trying to force the goalie, banging my stick and he put it off me."

The momentum shift was tangible. "It was a big break for us," Devils forward Zach Parise said. "Those type of things happen when you play hard."

The Devils played hard throughout the entire series. The Flyers were favored to win but they couldn't deal with the Devils strong forecheck and they had issues with 40-year old goalie Martin Brodeur, who looked like vintage Marty during the series.

The future Hall of Famer downplayed his marvelous play and turned the spotlight to those behind the bench.

"Our big weapon is the coaching staff," Brodeur said. "They prepare us and make changes to our system better than a lot of coaches that I've had in the past."

The Devils coaches had a good defensive game plan for the Flyers, who looked like the high octane Edmonton Oilers circa 1985 when they blitzed the Pittsburgh Penguins in the opening round. However, the Flyers didn't have many quality chances against Brodeur.

"They weren't in our zone enough during this series," Brodeur said.

Flyers coach Peter Laviolette tipped his cap to the Devils after the game. "You have to give the Devils credit for the way they played," Laviolette said. "They played a very good brand of hockey at both ends of the ice."

And that was the difference in the series.

#5 Flyers vs. #6 Devils

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