Grand goal for Giroux
PHILADELPHIA — When the Philadelphia Flyers drafted Claude Giroux four years ago, then-general manager Bob Clarke forgot his name at the podium.
Everyone who roots for the orange and black will remember Giroux now.
Giroux scored 5:59 into overtime to give the Flyers a 4-3 victory over Chicago in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals Wednesday night, cutting the Blackhawks' series lead to 2-1. Game 4 is Friday night in Philadelphia.
Minutes after the Flyers thought they scored the winner only to have a video review uphold the on-ice call of no goal, Giroux redirected Matt Carle's pass past Antti Niemi to end the third straight one-goal game in the series.
"I was taking a nap, and my buddy texted me," Giroux said. "He said, 'I have a feeling you're going to score the overtime winner tonight.' I texted back and said, 'You're crazy.' I'm going to call him now. It's obviously a big goal."
Clarke, who led the Flyers to their only two championships in 1974-75, blanked on Giroux's name after the team chose him with the 22nd overall pick in the 2006 NHL entry draft. It was Clarke who scored Philadelphia's last overtime goal in the finals against Boston in Game 2 of the 1974 series.
Giroux is making quite a name for himself with nine goals in the playoffs after tallying 16 in the regular season. If Giroux keeps this up and Philadelphia wins the Cup, he'll be revered by the Flyers' faithful the way Clarke, Bernie Parent, Reggie Leach and other heroes who played for the Broad Street Bullies in the 1970s were.
"I didn't really care," Giroux said about Clarke's blunder. "I thought it was pretty funny."
Looking to rally from a deficit for the second time in the playoffs, the Flyers had plenty of confidence despite losing the first two games in Chicago. They already came back from a 3-0 hole to beat the Boston Bruins in the semifinals.
"Like I said this morning, 2-0 for us is comfortable," coach Peter Laviolette said. "We're OK with that. We know how to battle through it."
The Blackhawks remained two wins shy of their first championship since 1961 after snapping a seven-game winning streak and a seven-game road winning streak.
Moments before Giroux scored, Simon Gagne nearly ended it but the replay officials ruled the puck didn't cross the goal line.
That made Philadelphia 1 for 2 on the video reviews.
Earlier in the game, Scott Hartnell had one overturned by replay to spark the Flyers to their first Cup win since Game 6 of the 1987 finals against Edmonton.
Danny Briere and Ville Leino also scored for the Flyers, helping them win a desperation game. Michael Leighton made 24 saves for the Flyers.
Giroux's goal was the only shot in OT for the Flyers. Niemi stopped 28 shots in the third straight thriller in the series.
Duncan Keith, Brent Sopel and Patrick Kane scored for Chicago.
"Right now it looks like they have the momentum in the series," Kane said. "But if we take Game 4, then we put ourselves in a great position to go back and play in front of our home crowd and hopefully win it there."
