Behind two first-period goals and 27 saves by goalie Martin Brodeur, the New custom jerseys Devils dropped the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1, in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal at the Wells Fargo Center Tuesday night, taking the series and advancing to the Conference finals for the first time since 2003.But ultimately, Game 5 wasn’t the reason the Flyers’ season is now over. That’s been in the works for days now. Their lack of urgency against the Devils early in the series set a collective lethargy. Lethargy begot frustration. Frustration begot undisciplined play, and that, of course, begets penalties. And eventually, the penalties cost them.After failing to capitalize on three power plays in the first two periods of Game 5, the Devils booked their ticket to the Eastern Conference final with a power-play goal early in the third. The Devils’ big-bodied center Dainius Zubrus took the faceoff, but it was rookie Adam Henrique, who touched a pass back to Ilya Kovalchuk at the point. Finding a shooting lane, the winger fired a high shot that beat Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov high on his glove side, giving New customized jerseys the 3-1 lead.
Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk was in the box, serving a two-minute minor for holding New Jersey’s Patrik Elias, an offensive-zone penalty that smacked of exasperation. Like many of his Philadelphia teammates, the 23-year-old winger, who has been the thorn in the side of Brodeur for the last two weeks, tried to get New Jersey to bite. It had worked before, and truth be told, against almost any other team in the league, the irksome things that the Flyers might do or say on the ice would get a reaction (see: Crosby, Sidney).
But not the Devils. Apart from perhaps Detroit, there isn’t a more composed team than New Jersey. With one of the oldest rosters in the league, the Devils are more interested in hockey than shenanigans.
While the rest of the league showed off how big and tough they were during the raucous opening round, New customized Houston Astros jerseys and Florida silently had the best series. Philadelphia was embroiled in a gong show with their intrastate rivals, and it was something that coach Peter DeBoer watched carefully. Before the start of the series against Philadelphia, he and his staff hammered one particular point into his players: Do not indulge them.”[We wanted to] stay out of the scrums and stay away from the stuff after the whistle,” New Jersey captain Zach Parise said. “We know that’s the way they get a lot of their excitement and energy. That’s the way their crowd gets a lot of excitement and energy, and we played disciplined. We skated away from it. We didn’t allow them to generate anything off that.”The self-discipline was something Pittsburgh wasn’t capable of channeling. And Parise admitted it wasn’t always easy to skate away. “But I think that frustrates them even more, that we weren’t getting involved,” he said. “And once you see that happening, it gets easier.”