Physical Philadelphia look to be creative offensively

After being outscored 6-5 in the opener to the Stanley Cup finals, the Flyers got more physical and changed the flow of the second game, but not the outcome.

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After being outscored 6-5 in the opener to the Stanley Cup finals, the Philadelphia Flyers got more physical in Game 2. It changed the flow of the game, but not the outcome. Players on both sides were tugging at jerseys, whacking at sticks, shoving shoulders and slamming bodies into the boards. The Flyers tightened up their defence, but still lost 2-1 and headed back to Philadelphia with nothing to show for it. "It's just a bounce here or there. Unfortunately, they're getting them right now," said Mike Richards, their captain. "We have to work harder to create them for ourselves."

Or work smarter. "I thought we were way too conservative in the first two periods," Danny Briere, the right winger, said. "We didn't give them much, I understand that, but that's not really our type of hockey. We didn't forecheck. We didn't create much offensively." Coming into the finals, Richards had six goals and 15 assists in the play-offs, but has a lone assist so far. The Flyers generated an incredible number of scoring chances down the stretch, but came up short. Peter Laviolette, the Philadelphia coach, said: "We had more than enough looks to tie up that game and opportunities to get out of it. It didn't happen. We have to go home and take a look at some things and come back. We have to win our home games." * AP