Flyers Notes: Rookie Leino has scoring touch

CHICAGO - Fast-emerging right winger Ville Leino is on the verge of becoming the highest-scoring rookie in the Flyers' playoff history.

Leino, 26, had a goal and an assist in Game 1, increasing his 2010 playoff total to 14 points (five goals, nine assists). He is one point shy of equaling the club's rookie record of 15, set by Brian Propp in 1980, when the Flyers lost to the Islanders in the Finals.

Since being placed on a playoff line with center Danny Briere and left winger Scott Hartenll, Leino has thrived.

"He's strong on the puck," Briere said after Sunday's practice at the United Center. "Sometimes it will be a one-on-three, and he'll find a way to keep the puck or extend the play. A lot of times you think the play is dead and they're about to break out, and he'll strip the puck and keep it going."

Briere said he and Leino "seemed to have found that chemistry as soon as we started playing together. I like playing with him. We seem to be thinking alike and find each other in the offensive zone."

Briere leads the Flyers in the playoffs with 10 goals and 22 points.

Chris Pronger says he is not bothered with the extra work load and that he will have plenty of time in the summer to get some rest.

The 35-year-old defenseman is averaging an NHL-high 29 minutes per game during the playoffs. He played a game-high 32 minutes, 21 seconds in Saturday's 6-5 track-meet of a loss to the Blackhawks.

"It's exhausting," Pronger said during Sunday's news conference. "I couldn't get up this morning. I don't even know how I'm sitting here. I almost fell asleep."

After pausing for a few seconds, he displayed a gap-toothed smile to show he was just kidding.

Saturday's game, in which Pronger had two assists and was plus-two, marked the seventh time he has logged more than 30 minutes in this year's playoffs.

The Flyers are 5-2 in those games.

Likely because they won, the Blackhawks offered no complaints about the officiating in Game 1, during which no penalties were called against the Flyers. Chicago was whistled for four penalties.

"You can't really point the fingers at the refs. They called a good game," Chicago winger Patrick Sharp said. "It's more on us as a team to draw penalties by using our speed and hanging onto the puck more and forcing them to take penalties. You never think you can win a game without your power play having anything to do with it, but we did."

A case can be made that Chicago's Marian Hossa was the most poised player on the ice amid the chaos of the Blackhawks' 6-5 win. The veteran winger, who had two assists, is in his third straight Stanley Cup Finals with his third team.

"We feel he was the best player on the ice," said Troy Brouwer, who scored two goals on assists by Hossa. "He's playing like a man possessed. He's been here twice before and failed, so he doesn't want to have that feeling for a third time."

Perhaps because of its young legs, Chicago has dominated the third period of playoff games, outscoring its opponents, 20-12. The Hawks scored the game's only third-period goal in their 6-5 win Saturday.

The Flyers have been outscored, 14-13, in the third period during the playoffs, but they have a convincing 28-10 second-period advantage.

Mike Richards on whether the Flyers played with enough physicality in Game 1: "I don't think we played unphysical." He said the Flyers "were tentative in some of the things we were doing . . . but I don't think not taking any penalties is a reflection of that." . . . The Flyers are 14-19 in series in which they lose Game 1 and 22-8 when they win the opener. . . . The Flyers are 5-5 on the road in this year's playoffs. . . . Chicago's Jonathan Toews had his 13-game point streak snapped on Saturday, and teammate Dustin Byfuglien had his five-game goal streak stopped. . . . Toews won 18 of 24 face-offs (75 percent) as the Hawks captured 63 percent of the draws. . . . Chicago notched its first Finals win since an 8-7 triumph in Montreal in 1973. . . . The Hawks have won six straight and nine of their last 10. . . . The combined 11 goals in Game 1 were the most in the Finals since the Penguins outlasted Chicago, 6-5, in 1992.