Bryz-aster strikes Flyers as Penguins avoid the brooms

On Sunday afternoon, the Flyers said all the right things. The unsuspecting young team was the underdog in the series, yet still took a commanding 3-0 lead over the Penguins.

“If there’s a team that can come back from 3-0 this year I think it’s them,” Claude Giroux said Sunday after a goal and an assist in an 8-4 win. “So we need to understand that. We need to make sure that we’re focused for Wednesday.”

So much for that. The Flyers looked like they were already on what would have been a break of a week and a half had they clinched the series last night. Instead they took an on-ice vacation in a 10-3 loss.

Undisciplined play, poor defense, bad goaltending. Game 4 had everything that Peter Laviolette asked the Flyers not to do. Ilya Bryzgalov was pulled in the second period and allowed five goals on 18 shots. He now has a .844 save percentage to go along with a 4.98 goals-against average for the series. Sergei Bobrovsky was no better. He allowed five goals on 18 shots.

Even though the Flyers looked like they could overcome anything in Games 1, 2 and 3, they warned that the Penguins wouldn’t roll over and die.

“They’re kind of a streaky team,” Giroux said. “They can win a lot of games in a row.”

Now the goal is to make sure that streak doesn’t come to fruition for the Penguins, who had four power-play goals on the night while the Flyers spent 64 minutes in the penalty box.

A two-goal win may have been just a blip on the radar. Instead, the Penguins won so convincingly, they may have gained enough confidence to make it a series. It’s the worst defeat the Flyers have ever been handed at home in the playoffs.

“We’ve been down in this dressing room before a couple years ago,” Scott Hartnell said. “You’ve got to win one game and that’s it. You can’t win four games in one night.”