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Redemption: Bruins sweep Flyers out, win 5-1 and set date with Tampa in East final

Johnny Boychuk

Boston Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk (55) celebrates his goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during the third period of Game 4 in a second-round NHL Stanley Cup hockey playoff series in Boston on Friday, May 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

AP

There will be no miracle comebacks for the Flyers this year. Boston earned redemption for their extreme collapse last season by sweeping the Flyers out of the playoffs this year and doing it in impressive fashion once again tonight beating Philadelphia 5-1.

Defense and goaltending have been the issues for Philadelphia all playoffs long and tonight they suffered bouts with both of these again. It only makes sense that the same problems that kept them from winning the first three games helped prevent them from prolonging the series and making doubt creep into the heads of the Bruins.

Things were coming up so much for Boston that the often absent from this series Milan Lucic showed up in a big way tonight adding two goals including a power play goal in the first to kick off the scoring for Boston.

While the Flyers were able to tie things up in the second period thanks to a goal from Kris Versteeg, in the third the Bruins would not let Sergei Bobrovsky (22 saves) go quietly. Johnny Boychuk would get the Bruins the lead just 2:42 into the third to make it 2-1 and the Bruins wouldn’t look back as they locked things down defensively and let Tim Thomas do the rest in stopping 22 shots in the game. At 15:03 Lucic would score his second of the goal game to ice things. Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille would add empty net goals to complete the deal and finish off Philadelphia in euphoric style.

For Boston the win helps them build confidence as they head to their first Eastern Conference final since 1992 when they were beaten by Mario Lemeiux’s Pittsburgh Penguins. There, former University of Vermont teammates and alums Tim Thomas and Martin St. Louis will do battle against each other for a shot at the Stanley Cup final. The two are old friends and with St. Louis being a Hart Trophy finalist and Thomas a Vezina Trophy finalist the stage is set for those two to have a classic battle.

Boston may have other worries however as Patrice Bergeron left the game after a collision with Claude Giroux that left Bergeron rattled. Bergeron has a history of concussion issues, those of which began against the Flyers years ago thanks to a hit from then Flyers defenseman and current Lightning blue liner Randy Jones. Coach Claude Julien did not have an update on Bergeron after the game.

Philadelphia will need to go into the offseason looking to answer the same question they had after last year’s Stanley Cup final failure: Who will play in goal? After all three Flyers goalies proved to be shaky at best, the Flyers should be focused on ponying up some money and finding some cap space for next year and beyond to take a run at guys like Tomas Vokoun or Ilya Bryzgalov. These sorts of disappointment don’t go over well in Philadelphia and even though they may have overshot themselves last year as a seven seed, failing out as a two seed is inexcusable.