Scott Hartnell

Hard hitting, desperation saves and a little bit of extra-curricular activities sprinkled in.

Perhaps, it was a look at what the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals has in store for the Flyers and Penguins. 60 minutes of full throttle hockey with the addition of the playoffs, and the hockey world will be in store for another classic Flyers/Penguins series.

Sunday afternoon's battle - as well as one more game next Saturday afternoon to finish the season - was a preview of the almost inevitable 4/5-seed match up between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Making Ilya Bryzgalov the story for every game has become tiresome to the fans, the front office and Bryzgalov himself.

But when he does something as special as he's done the past couple of weeks, it's hard to just take all the focus away from the Russian netminder, nicknamed the $51 Million Man.

The Flyers have been winning, and they have been playing a brand of hockey many expected them to play down the stretch. Scoring, defense and goaltending - those are the three things that win championships.

So why does the focus all come back to Bryzgalov? Because of the franchise shutout streak that he just broke that stood tall for 13 years midway through the second period.

Meeting for the second time in three days, the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils will close out a home-and-home set when they faceoff tonight at Wells Fargo Center.

In their meeting on Sunday, Martin Brodeur and a tight Devils defensive scheme held the Flyers in check for two thirds of the game until Claude Giroux tied it just sixteen seconds into the third period.

That would last all of 2:30 seconds as Anton Volchenkov scored to give the Devils the lead and they never looked back.

There is nothing more frustrating than sandwiching a win in between two shut out losses.

After a 2-0 loss in Edmonton and a huge 5-4 comeback win in Calgary, the offense disappeared again, dropping 1-0 to the Sharks in San Jose Tuesday night.

There was one huge bright spot in the game though and it came in the form of goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

Not even 90 seconds into the game, this game had the makings of a Bryz-aster. The Flyers turned over the puck in the offensive zone and San Jose's Ryan Clowe ripped a wrister past Bryzgalov for a quick 1-0 lead.

With that being said, it wound up being the one tally that made all the difference in this game. But be that it may, Bryzgalov picked himself up and played one of the best games he had all season, despite being on the losing side.