Sunday, April 18, 2004

Flyers exorcise Devils, advance to second round

The Devils won’t have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup this year, the defending Cup champions made an exit after five games, as Philadelphia defeated New Jersey 3-1 to advance in the Stanley Cup play downs.

Robert Esche once again outplayed Martin Brodeur in the net as he faced 32 shots in the game five clincher. Brodeur had 40 shots directed at him Saturday, an indication of how the Devil defence had fallen off their game in this series.

Zahmnov, Markov and Kapnenan scored for the Flyers, Niedermayer with the only reply for Jersey. Brodeur while not to blame completely for the Devils disappearing act, certainly let in a few suspect goals over the five games. His counterpart at the Flyer end Esche, would make game winning saves time and time again, giving his fellow Flyers a bit of confidence in the back end as they rest up for the second round.

They will have to wait for the results from the Ottawa/Toronto and Montreal/Boston series before they know who they match up with next week. The Devil’s have no such concerns, all they need to know is what tee times are available for Sunday.

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