Byfuglien Leads Blackhawks in Game Five

The Blackhawks were revved from the drop of the puck on Sunday night and they were able to put all sorts of pressure on the Flyers goaltending, making it long night in the Philadelphia crease. 

At first, the Flyers were doing really well to weather the storm from the Blackhawks, who were still getting shots away, but the quality wasn't quite as high as the quantity in most cases.  That wasn't to say Michael Leighton wasn't busy, because he certainly was.  Leighton did have to make a couple of big saves early, but the Blackhawks offense was only building up steam.

For the Flyers the 1st period really started to crumble down when Brent Seabrook managed to open the scoring not too long past the midway point of the period and that sent the Blackhawks offense back to the Flyers net, over and over, as they built a 3-0 lead after the opening stanza. 

The Flyers were not prepared to back down, as they opened the 2nd period scoring only 32 seconds into the frame, thanks to a Scott Hartnell tap-in, after Antti Niemi let a puck slide through his pads, left lying in the crease.  But like in the series leading up to this, the Blackhawks were not fazed by the goal against, as Patrick Kane took the goal back about three minutes later.  A couple more goals were traded in the 2nd period and there was a sense that the Flyers were not out of it down 5-2 after two.

The 3rd period started out fairly hesitant, as neither team was giving too much away, until James Van Riemsdyk pounced on a fat rebound in the slot and wristed it past Niemi to bring the lead back down to two goals.  The Flyers were then much harder on the puck and on the body, trying to generate some more offense, but the Blackhawks stayed right with them, not wanting to let the Flyers back in, like they did in Game One of the series.  Just after the 16-minute mark of the 3rd, the Blackhawks were able to transform a turnover into an offensive zone scramble, which led to a Patrick Sharp goal, which brought the lead back up to three, only to see Simon Gagne put another back in over a minute later and finally an empty-netter from Dustin Byfuglien really capped it all off and the game finished as a 7-4 final.

It was a monster game for Dustin Byfuglien, who ended the night with a pair of goals, including the winner, and a pair of assists for a 5-point night in the pool, which has now broken open the lead in the pool and eliminated a number of teams passed the 20-point level in just one game.  More on that in a little bit.  The winning goal is now his 5th winner of these playoffs, which now gives him the lead in the pool with a maximum of two goal left to be scored and the only player that can catch him for the title is Daniel Briere, who has 4 GWGs in these playoffs as well.  Byfuglien now ranks 8th in pool scoring in these playoffs with 20 points and tied for 4th in series scoring with 6 points. 

Now, the series shifts back to Philadelphia for Game Six, but that doesn't go until Wednesday night, giving both teams an extra day's worth of rest and it likely gives the league a little bit more lead time to get the Stanley Cup all polished up and ready to show, because it will be in the building, just in case the Blackhawks can close it all down on the road.

So, I guess we can go to the pool numbers then, since that's what a lot of you are here for.  Thanks to the monster night from Dustin Byfuglien, Scott G. opened up his lead a little further.  Scott managed to put 4 more points in between himself and Myles D. on Sunday night, bringing the lead up to 8 points.  Byfuglien had 5 points, Kimmo Timonen was good for 2 points giving Scott 7 for the night, while Patrick Kane had 2 points and Jonathan Toews had 1 point.

Now the lead stands at 8 points with a maximum of two games remaining.  It does seem to be a long shot for Myles to overtake Scott, unless Chris Pronger can register a 4-point bounce back night in Game Six, with the Flyers shutting down the Blackhawks completely and Kimmo Timonen getting shutout from the scoresheet as well... or Kane and Toews run wild to clinch the Cup, with Byfuglien getting hurt early and not giving him a chance to get on the scoresheet at all.  It's all rather improbable, but not impossible, so Scott will have to hold his breath for just a little while longer.