Home-Ice Advantage Through Game Three

I read an amazing statistic last night, but I can't remember who it was from, saying that this is the fifth consecutive year that the home team has won the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final. That's a statistic you just don't expect to see, is it?

Anyways, I only managed to see a bit of the overtime, so my actual frame of reference from this game is a lot of the highlights, the disallowed goal and the allowed goal in overtime, but it doesn't really take too much to conclude that the Flyers have made good use of their surroundings by taking Game Three at home in the Wachovia Center, 4-3 in overtime, bringing the series a little closer at two games to one.

Claude Giroux was the number one star of the game, as he made it to the scoresheet three times, the overtime winning goal and a pair of assists to go with it, giving him a 4-point game, bringing his Cup Final total to 5 points and overall total to 23 points.  Giroux is now tied for 3rd in points in the pool with teammate, Mike Richards, who didn't have a point in Game Three and only 1 point in the series so far.  Daniel Briere finished the night with 2 points, goal and an assist, closing the gap on the playoff pool lead in points, now with 28 points, thanks to 6 points in this Finals series.  Scott Hartnell, goal and an assist, and Matt Carle, 2 assists, also finished the night with 2 points for the Flyers, giving a bit more life to the hockey pool as well. 

For the Blackhawks, Patrick Kane finally picked up his first two points of the series, thanks to a goal and an assist in Game Three, but it wasn't enough to help seal a victory.

From the highlights that I had seen, it looks like the Flyers were ready to lift their level of play up to where it needed to be and help them overcome those 1-goal losses, by getting a 1-goal win in overtime on Wednesday night.  The Flyers have been close enough and I've been saying it through the first two games of the series and the proof is in the pudding there.  The overtime period had an orange flavour to it and they were seemingly destined to have that puck go over the line, one way or the other, which was also the case.

In the pool, the 4-3 scoring fest that took place again brought our leaders a little closer together.  Myles D. has closed the gap down to 3 points, which is now starting to be some shaky ground for our leader, Scott G., who really didn't have any of his unique players make a difference for him in the game.  Both teams shared Giroux's 4 points, so that was a wash, also sharing Hartnell's pair of points, so that's just 6 points to their totals more than anything.  Chris Pronger beat Kimmo Timonen in the defenseman battle, 1-0 to Myles.  Kane and Jonathan Toews combined for 3 points on the other side, so there was the 4 points that Myles made up right there and now we'll have an extra game, at the very least, to help stir the pot a little further.

Through Game Three, Myles D. and Jamie C. now lead the Stanley Cup Finals in points in the pool, both having 18 points in the series.  We all know where Myles is in the standings, but unfortunately, Jamie is down in 17th, but he should be moving up the ranks, possibly with an eye on the top ten, being only 7 points out.