The Flyers jumped all over Buffalo from the puck drop until the final horn, skating to a convincing 5-2 victory in Game 7 last night and advancing to the second round for the second season in a row.
With the Flyers' mind-numbing "Doop" goal song playing in the background, the Flyers and Sabres traded handshakes in keeping with hockey tradition, as the Flyers took the first-round series, four games to three, without much to sweat over in the third period.
Adding to the irony of Miller taking an early shower was the fact that the Flyers became the first team to win a playoff series by starting three different goaltenders since Detroit knocked off Toronto way back in 1988.
About the only thing missing from the strange scene was the Flyers' first shutout of the season, which was snapped by Tyler Myers when his goal squeaked past Brian Boucher early in the third period.
And if Braydon Coburn's point shot didn't squeak through Miller's pads with 18.5 seconds left in the first period, after even the Flyers' 16-2 advantage in shots didn't do their dominance justice, it might have been a different game. Thoughts of Miller's two 1-0 shutout victories this series would have already started to dance in the Flyers' heads during the first intermission.
"We knew it was coming," Coburn said. "Any goal in a tight game like that is big, but goals at the end of periods and the start of periods are momentum turners. We had a feeling, just because how we were pressing. and we knew it was finally going to go in.
"Sometimes, the goals come like mine from a shot from the point that just hits something on the way in."
