Fire Offers A Flicker Of Hope

PHILADELPHIA

The light went on Thursday night, and we're not talking about the light lit by Mike Knuble to end this wild scrum of a Stanley Cup playoff game that sent the Capitals back to Washington -- maybe for the season.

The light that makes young, star-struck skaters understand their purpose in the postseason, the pilot light that becomes a flame, was ignited in Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom.

And Alex Ovechkin, who set up camp in the harsh environment of the crease rather than play the waiting game on the perimeter.

But the hard question is this: Was it too late?

Viktor Kozlov, without a playoff goal now in 18 postseason games, was braver and better. Cristobal Huet sprawled and flailed until the resilient Flyers and the foaming fans did him and the Capitals in, a 4-3 double overtime thriller, remembered as much for its relentless forechecking as its pulse-checking drama.

But here's the real rub for Washington: Had the Capitals given the resilient performance they gave in Game 4 here two nights ago in Game 3 or four days ago in Game 2, this series is squared at two games and home ice is still theirs.

Instead, they play for their season at home on Saturday against the first team to slap them with a three-game losing streak since, yes, November.

Two well-muscled statistics dropped the gloves Thursday night, trading blows into the second overtime. The Flyers had not lost a home game in front of these impossibly loud lungs in five weeks, dating from mid-March. The Capitals had never lost three games in a row under Coach Bruce Boudreau since he took over for Glen Hanlon in November.

Who would go down?

The sawed-off coach and his playoff newbies, most of them late of the Hershey Bears, who stood their ground on Thursday night at Wachovia Center, repelling the Flyers as best as they could for most of three periods, taking this thriller past regulation.

Or home ice, the invincibility the Flyers have found in their love-'em-or-loathe-'em city, where the real-life Vince Papale, not Marky Mark, shows up with his son in orange and black?