The Flyers’ post-season slogan has been “Vengeance NOW”. Obviously in reference to last year’s atrocious season, the slogan held particularly true in game 2 against the Montreal Canadiens. In game 1 the Flyers had to battle not only the Habs, but the officials who granted Alex Kovalev a goal that he knocked in from what appeared to be above the crossbar, and were gracious in a questionable at best Mike Richards tripping call late in the 3rd to tie the game.

Saturday night however, the Flyers had that vengeance against Montreal. R.J. Umberger scored on a quick snap shot 5:53 into the first stanza to open up the scoring. Despite Montreal having a heavy lead in shots, the Flyers led where it counted. The rather partial Versus commentators (I didn’t even care as long as they weren’t the guys from NBC) also noted that the Habs were leading in hits, but that didn’t really tell the story either. The Flyers hammered the hardest hits of the game, including a doozie from captain Jason Smith. At 8:39 on the power play Jeff Carter absolutely sniped his shot over the left shoulder of rookie Carey Price. Commentators have been saying throughout both series in this year’s post-season that Jeff Carter has been the best Flyer and he proved why tonight. His shot is one of the hardest and fastest in the NHL.

After the Flyers went up 2-0, visions came to mind of the Flyers blowing that lead, something they did in game 1 of the conference semifinals, and on multiple occasions in the first round against Washington. Captain Saku Koivu scored for the Canadiens with just over 3 minutes remaining in the first period, causing fans everywhere to wince. The only reason, by the way, that the score was even that close was the incredible play of Marty Biron. The new father is playing in only his second playoff series and early in this game he decided he would haul the team on his shoulders and carry them, making flashy glove saves in the process. Apparently the constant chants of “Bbbbbb-roooooo” as it sounded in unison of 20,000 French Canadian accents motivated Marty to continue his stellar play this off-season.

The only goal of the second period came off the red-hot stick of Danny Briere. Briere, among boo’s from the crowd drew the puck close to him, skated around Andrei Markov who was draped all over him, dragged the puck across the crease in front of Carey Price and neatly slid the puck behind Price’s right foot, which was behind the goal line. That goal marked the seventh for Danny in the playoffs which tied him for the lead with Detroit’s Johan Franzen who posted a hat trick this afternoon against the Avalanche.

Andrei Markov scored 1:26 in to the 3rd period on a back door goal that Biron had no chance on, to make it a 1 goal game once again. The Flyers didn’t collapse this time and held onto the lead until 17:39 when R.J. Umberger netted his second of the night and fourth of the playoffs to really put the nail in the coffin for the Habs. The Flyers look like a different team this series, playing at a higher notch than they were against the Caps last week. There is a sense of confidence in this team that isn’t an ignorant  confidence this time around. These guys truly seem to believe they  can and will score the next goal at any point in the game. It also doesn’t hurt when your goalie decides he will stand on his head and make the entire opposing team his own personal bunch of lackeys.

The series is now tied at 1 game apiece, as both teams head down to Philly. The motivation is clearly in the Flyers favor. They have so many things working for them. Not only is Biron playing superhuman hockey, but the physical play is carried by the orange and black. And analysts thought this would be easy for Montreal? Think again.

Dave’s 3 Stars of the Game

1. Marty Biron - 34 saves
2. R.J. Umberger - 2 goals
3. Danny Briere - 1 goal

Photos flyers.nhl.com, Phillip MacCallum/Getty Image