The Philadelphia Flyers hosted the New Jersey Devils for game 5 of the NHL playoffs Eastern Conference semifinals on Tuesday, May 8th. The Devils held a 3-1 game lead in this best of seven series and were looking to take advantage of the absence of Flyers star forward and leading scorer Claude Giroux by ending the series quickly. Giroux would miss game 5 to serve a one game suspension after an illegal check to the head of Devils forward Dainius Zubrus that occurred in game 4.
The Flyers opened the scoring at the 7:18 mark in the first period with a goal from forward Max Talbot. Just a couple minutes later at the 9:27 mark, the Devils responded with a goal from defenseman Bryce Salvador, his second goal in this series. Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was the victim of an unfortunate timing and bounce when he tried to play the puck in front of his net at the 12:45 mark and New Jersey winger was in front of him to knock the puck in and take the lead. There was no scoring in the second period.
Philadelphia left winger was given a 2 minute minor penalty in the third period for holding with the Flyers still trying to tie the game and take an eventual lead to force a game 6 to prolong this series. Unfortunately, this led to a Devils power play goal by forward Ilya Kovalchuk at the 5:00 mark in the third period. With the Devils leading the game as well as the series 3-1, the Flyers pulled their goalie at the end of the third period to allow an extra skater on the ice in hope of offensive help.
Though New Jersey scored an empty net goal, it did not count as it was scored with a player already in the Flyers zone and ruled offside.
Bryzgalov made 27 saves on 30 shots in this game for the Flyers, and goaltender Marty Brodeur made 27 saves on 28 shots for the Devils. The final score was 3-1 in favor of the New Jersey Devils. This ended the series allowing the Devils to move on to the Eastern Conference finals where they will face the winner of the New Rangers/Washington Capitals series.
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