Facing elimination, the Flyers could not break down an excellent Boston defense. The final boxscore credited them with 23 shots, but they only generated eight scoring chances, largely due to the shots coming from outside the scoring chance area. The Bruins on the other hand, were able to regularly get into good positions to shoot and generated a total of 17 chances. Six of those chances came on powerplays, which doesn't seem so inept anymore.

Early in the first period the chances were even, with Braydon Coburn getting two chances for the Flyers. The Bruins then generated the next nine straight chances, including a Milan Lucic powerplay goal. The Flyers would not get another chance until there was ten seconds remaining in the period. The period ended with the Bruins outchancing the Flyers 10-3.

The Flyers outchanced the Bruins in the second 4-2, and tied the game with a 4v4 Kris Versteeg goal with 6:39 remaining in the period. James van Riemsdyk's chance with 4:16 remaining in the second would be the last chance the Flyers would get for more than twenty minutes of hockey as the Bruins took over in the third. The Bruins got five chances in the third, including two goals, while managing to keep the Flyers to the outside in their defensive zone. JVR would get the final chance for the Flyers with 1:09 remaining, but it was far too late by then. The empty net goals weren't counted as scoring chances and to be honest I wasn't paying close attention by the end of the third, but I don't think I missed any chances.

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The Flyers were outchanced by the Bruins 13-19, and 11-15 at even strength. They generated two chances on their two powerplays, and allowed four chances while penalty killing. Chances by period were 3-5, 7-8, and in the third where the Flyers needed to push to maintain any chance of winning they were outchanced 3-6.

Daniel Carcillo, Matt Carle and Nikolay Zherdev were the only Flyers to have an even-strength chance differential greater than +1 (in fact they were all +2). Braydon Coburn (-4), Scott Hartnell (-4) and Ville Leino (-5) were the worst skaters for the Flyers, but that's singling out a few from many that were poor.

If you make the jump to the Head to Head even strength chance summary you'll see how Bruins coach Claude Julien was able to exploit the matchups he wanted in Boston's favour.

Apologies for the lame chance recap, but I wanted to move on from this game as I'm sure many of you do. Jump for the charts.

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The first period was filled with penalties and bad plays by Michael Leighton. Unsurprisingly, the Sabres took advantage of their powerplays to score two goals on four chances. The Flyers didn't manage a single chance on their powerplays, which included some 5v3 time. The chances for that period were 7-7, with all seven of the Flyers first period chances came at even-strength, including a goal to Danny Briere.

The second period started well for the Flyers, with James Van Riemsdyk finding a loose puck in the slot and shooting it past Ryan Miller to cut the deficit to one. Briere scored again, this time on the powerplay, to tie the game up. In the final ten minutes of the period, the Sabres generated nine more chances, while the Flyers only had one more through Danny Carcillo. In that time, the Sabres had five powerplay chances, including a Drew Stafford shot that hit the post. Nathan Gerbe scored past Brian Boucher's glove to regain the lead for Buffalo. Chances for the second period were 6-11 in favour of the Sabres.

The teams then traded chances in the third period until there was 15:00 remaining and Brad Boyes was stopped by Boucher. The Flyers then generated the next eight chances, including a goal to Scott Hartnell, and the Sabres didn't get a chance until 3:26 remaining. Final chances for the third period were 9-3 to the Flyers.

There were three chances in overtime, two for the Flyers and one for the Sabres, but the only chance that really matters was Ville Leino's game winner.

Final chances for the game were 24-22 to the Flyers. The Flyers were better at even strength with the chances 18-13, and generated six chances on the powerplay and allowing nine on the penalty kill.

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Rejoice, the scripts appear to be working again!

The Flyers controlled the play for the first ten minutes, with Jeff Carter scoring a powerplay goal early and the JVR-Giroux-Carter line generating three scoring chances. The Sabres then got into the game and a Coburn interference penalty lead to Drew Stafford scoring a powerplay goal. The Sabres continued to pressure, aided by a Scott Hartnell double-minor, but didn't manage to score on the powerplay. At the end of the first the chances were 5-8 to the Sabres.

The second period was dominated by the Flyers, who lead in scoring chances 9-4 by the end. Starting with a goal to Danny Briere with 17:17 remaining, the Flyers were able to generate scoring chances in bunches, with the Sabres chances only coming from broken plays. The Flyers would take a 3-1 lead through a Nikolay Zherdev goal, but the Sabres pulled it back to one through Nathan Gerbe.

Kimmo Timonen, Zherdev and Darroll Powe penalties in the third gave the Sabres opportunities to generate chances through the first nine minutes of the period, but they couldn't beat Brian Boucher. The Flyers then held the Sabres chanceless for the next ten minutes, while generating four of their own, until Thomas Vanek had a chance with Ryan Miller pulled.

Final chances were 18-18, with the Flyers outchancing the Sabres 16-11 at even strength. The Flyers managed two chances on their three powerplays, but allowed five while 4v5 and two at 3v5.

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Given that I haven't been able to publish any of the scoring chance results for the first two playoff games as the script used hasn't been providing the information needed, I decided to look back at the results from the last seven games of the regular season.

The chances have been broken down into even strength, powerplay and penalty kill. Due to the small sample size, strong conclusions shouldn't be drawn from these results, but it's at least interesting to see individual performances at the end of the season when the team was not performing as well as expected.

A massive thanks to Neil Greenberg who tracks the Washington Capitals scoring chances for Russian Machine Never Breaks for helping with data compilation. His results for the Capitals regular season can be found here. Also, thanks to Vic Ferrari for writing the scripts.

Charts after the jump (there seems to be some interesting formatting with the table border unfortunately).

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The Flyers started the first period scoring two goals on two chances. A Flyers powerplay then killed any momentum they had, and the Islanders scored on a Michael Grabner breakaway and a 5v3 goal from Travis Hamonic. Danny Briere would score to put the Flyers ahead 3-2, only for Tavares to even it up just over two minutes later. After 12:05 played, there had been nine scoring chances and six goals. The first period ended with two more chances for each team, but no additional goals.

The Islanders got a power play early in the second period and were able to convert through P. A Parenteau. With 12:16 remaining in the second period, and the teams skating 4v4, the Flyers recorded the next seven chances with Andrej Meszaros scoring to tie the game again. The Islanders rallyed and generated the next five chances, but went unrewarded. Scott Hartnell would score with 1:32 remaining to put the Flyers ahead.

The third period was fairly even, with teams trading chances and the Flyers scoring again through Meszaros. John Tavares tried to get his 30th goal of the season (thanks for letting me know 50 times, MSG announcers), but was unsuccessful.

The final chances were 25-20 in favour of the Flyers, with a 17-11 advantage at even strength. The powerplay had six total chances, and the the penalty kill final differential was 2-9.

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PHILADELPHIA -- Thank Kimmo for Rick DiPietro. The Flyers clinched the Atlantic Division and the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference tonight, thanks in large part to the Islanders beleaguered goaltender. As a result, the Flyers will host the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

Really, it was a pretty fitting game. The Flyers jumped out to a 2-0 lead 47 seconds into the game until a Flyers power play derailed their momentum. That sentence doesn't make sense unless you've been following the Flyers for a little bit, which is what made this game so perfect. Up and down the whole way.

From going up 2-0, to being tied at 2 after ten minutes, going up 3-2 within thirty seconds, then blowing that lead two minutes later... you get the point. The Flyers went from two goals up to one goal down in just over twenty minutes of play. But they pulled it out. They won the game and the Division.

After the game, the talk was no longer about the recent slump, but the opportunity ahead. Said Andrej Meszaros, "The last few weeks weren’t that great but overall it was pretty good.  Starting now, it is a new season and everybody is excited.  Everybody is getting ready for the first game."

Maybe it's just an easy way to gloss over the recent mistakes, but they're right: It's a new season. This team proved last year that anything can happen. They know they have to play better. So now it's time to show it.

Jump for bullets, Questions with Answers, and Comment of the Night.

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The two teams traded chances throughout the first period, with the Flyers moving ahead 6-4 with two late chances. There was a stretch of eight minutes where neither team got a chance, until Scott Hartnell's goal put the Flyers in the lead.

The second period started poorly for the Flyers, with Nathan Gerbe scoring on a shot from the point. While his shot was from outside the normal "scoring chance area", the fact that Sergei Bobrovsky was screened by about six players meant I included it. It got worse when Jason Pominville got behind the defense and froze Bobrovsky while shooting over his glove.

The Sabres then went on the powerplay due to a Darroll Powe delay of game penalty. The Flyers penalty kill was dominant though, getting the only chances plus Versteeg scoring shorthanded. Danny Briere then scored as the penalty finished and the Flyers lead, 3-2. Another Flyers penalty, this one to Kimmo Timonen for interference, saw the Sabres generate two scoring chances. The Sabres would not record another scoring chance until the final four seconds with a Pominville breakaway.

The Flyers limited the Sabres to two chances in the first ten minutes of the third, but Gerbe tied the game on a backhand shot with 9:59 remaining. After the goal, the teams combined for five more chances. While it appeared the teams were playing for a tie, one chance every two minutes is only slightly under the game average of one chance every 1:45.

There was one chance in overtime, and it was the Vanek game-winning goal.

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