Ville Leino and Daniel Briere scored nearly two minutes apart late in the second period as the Philadelphia Flyers evened their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at one game apiece on Saturday with a wild 5-4 home triumph over the Buffalo Sabres.
All-Star Claude Giroux collected a goal and an assist and Daniel Carcillo and James van Riemsdyk also tallied for Atlantic Division champion Philadelphia, which once again played without Chris Pronger. The stud defenseman has missed both contests in this series - and 18 consecutive games overall - with a hand injury.
Fellow blue-liners Kimmo Timonen, Matt Carle and Andrej Meszaros all chipped in with two assists apiece for the Flyers.
Rookie Sergei Bobrovsky permitted three goals on seven shots in the first period before being relieved by Brian Boucher, who finished with 20 saves.
After the teams traded the first six goals in the first period, Leino wired a shot from the left faceoff circle which beat reigning Vezina Trophy winner Ryan Miller with 6:24 remaining in the second. The tally was Philadelphia's lone goal in 10 opportunites on the power play.
Briere doubled the advantage just 1:51 later with a well-timed deflection off Scott Hartnell's shot.
Thomas Vanek netted a pair of power-play goals and Cody McCormick and defenseman Andrej Sekera also tallied for seventh-seeded Buffalo, which will head back to western New York to host Game 3 on Monday.
After stopping all 35 shots he faced in Game 1, Miller turned aside 29 shots in Saturday's loss.
Buffalo | Philadelphia | |
Thomas Vanek 2 | Points | Claude Giroux 2 |
Thomas Vanek 2 | Goals | Claude Giroux 1 |
Tim Connolly 1 | Assists | Matt Carle 2 |
Thomas Vanek 2 | Power Play Goals | Ville Leino 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Ryan Miller .853 | Save Percentage | Brian Boucher .952 |
Ryan Miller 29 | Saves | Brian Boucher 20 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Buffalo | 28 | 4 | 2-8 | 9-10 | 29 | 37 |
Philadelphia | 34 | 5 | 1-10 | 6-8 | 25 | 33 |