April 17, 2004: Flyers finish off Devils
In Game 5 of the first round of the 2003-04 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Flyers had the opportunity to exercise the playoff demons of four years prior against Martin Brodeur and the New Jersey Devils. Up three games to one and in front of a sellout crowd down in South Philadelphia, the Flyers looked to advance to the next round and send the Devils home.
They did just that with a 3-1 win.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead on a first period goal at 13:38 by trade deadline acquisition Alexei Zhamnov, assisted by Tony Amonte and Jeremy Roenick. That would be the only scoring of the period as Philadelphia goaltender Robert Esche stopped all 12 Devils shots in the opening 20 minutes, while Brodeur stopped 12 of 13 Flyers chances.
In the second, the Devils would tie it up at 13:36 on a Scott Niedermayer goal. The Flyers would again, firing 13 shots at Brodeur, but he was equal to the task on all of them. The teams would head to the third period knotted up at one goal apiece.
In the third, two more in-season acquisitions contributed to the goal that would prove to be the game-winner. Danny Markov would beat Brodeur at 14:37, from Zhamnov and defenseman Vladimir Malakhov. Malakhov had been picked up in early March from a trade with the New York Rangers.
As the Devils pulled Brodeur to try to tie the game in the waning moments, Sami Kapanen scored an empty-net goal with just eight seconds remaining to seal the win for the Flyers. They outshot the Devils 40-32 for the game and took Game 5 and the series, four games to one.
The Flyers would go on to face the Toronto Maple Leafs in the next round in a playoff run that went down to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Mike Watson is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @Mwats_99.
