NHL PLAYOFFS : Flyers Finally Live Up to Nicknames

Hockey has this thing about naming lines that sometimes can become embarrassing.

Take Philadelphia’s “Legion of Doom”--Eric Lindros, Mikael Renberg and John LeClair. It has been more like a “Legion of Doomed” in the Eastern Conference finals.

Until Wednesday night.

Finally the Legion of Doom lowered the boom on the New Jersey Devils, Lindros scoring 4:19 into overtime for a 3-2 Philadelphia victory that cut the Flyer deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven format.

A little luck helped. So did a lot of goaltending by Ron Hextall.

Given life with a goal that bounced past New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur late in the third period, the Flyers made the Devils pay when Lindros scored.

“The right guy had the puck in the right spot at the right time,” said Hextall, who stopped 31 shots, finally establishing himself in a series in which he had given up nine goals in 44 shots. “I couldn’t have picked a better guy to have the puck.”

The Flyers were outshot, 33-25.

One of those 25 shots was a goal by Rod Brind’Amour with 6:03 left in regulation.

The Devils were seemingly on their way to a 3-0 lead in the series with a 2-1 lead when Brodeur was fooled on a shot by Brind’Amour.

Brind’Amour was about 60 feet away on the left side of the ice when he sent the puck on net. It bounced once and then skipped past Brodeur.

Said Brodeur: “I never saw it. It was a nightmare only after it went in.”

The Flyers took advantage in overtime, with Lindros the trailer on a rush down ice. The Flyer captain took a pass from the right side from Renberg and beat Brodeur with a hard shot from the slot.

Kevin Dineen scored Philadelphia’s other goal. Claude Lemieux and Randy McKay scored for the Devils. It was McKay’s third goal in as many games.