The Defense Rests

BOSTON - The frenetic pace displayed by the Flyers and Boston Bruins on Thursday night suggested that this was a playoff game at the reverberating TD Garden.

Everything was ratcheted up a notch - except for the teams' defense and goaltending.

On a night when no lead was safe, defenseman Steve Kampfer converted a Matt Carle turnover into a goal with 1 minute, 14 seconds left, lifting the Bruins to a wild, 7-5 victory.

With the score tied at 5, Kampfer sent a right-circle shot past a screened Brian Boucher, who allowed four goals in the final period. A fifth goal was an empty-netter in the closing seconds.

"I didn't see it," Boucher said of Kampfer's game-winner. "I was covering low because a guy skated through when he shot it, and I didn't pick it up."

Boston benefited from an apparent missed call that led to the goal that tied the score at 5.

"At the end of the night, you take the two points and appreciate it, especially against an elite team like the Flyers," Bruins coach Claude Julien said.

The Bruins scored two goals in the first 1:48 of the final period to take a 4-3 lead. The tying goal was scored by former Flyer Mark Recchi after the puck caromed away from Boucher as he went to settle it off the boards. Recchi knocked the puck into an empty net.

"It was a crazy game, but it was right there for the taking until late," Boucher said with a shrug.

Danny Briere scored on a rebound to tie it at 4 with 13:12 left. Defenseman Sean O'Donnell, of all people, then snapped the tie with 12:19 remaining, scoring his first goal with the Flyers to give them a brief, 5-4 lead over their old playoff pals.

Not quite three minutes later, Brad Marchand tied it at 5 on a shot from the high slot, beating Boucher to his glove side.

A few seconds before the Bruins went on a rush that produced Marchand's goal, Boston defenseman Johnny Boychuk flipped the puck, and it appeared to hit the netting above the glass in the Flyers' offensive end. The Flyers thought it should have caused a stoppage and drawn a delay-of-game penalty.

Some Flyers slowed down, thinking a whistle was going to be blown. It wasn't.

"I was on the ice, and it hit the netting, for sure," O'Donnell said. "It's one of those things that you let up for a second because you think they're going to blow it down - and when they don't, it takes you a second to get back into your rhythm."

Added O'Donnell: "It happens. It's a bang-bang play. . . . [The officials] missed it. It was still down their end when it happened, so it's no excuse" for allowing a goal.

The officials refused to comment after the game.

When the non-call occurred, a handful of Flyers raised their arms to complain, including Briere and Ville Leino.

Briere, who had a goal and an assist but was minus-3, said he and Scott Hartnell "both stopped playing" because Boychuk "shot it directly into the netting."

According to Briere, referee Brad Watson had his back to the play, "but I thought one of the other three [officials] would have seen it and called it. It was a bad bounce. What are you going to do? It's part of the game. Sometimes it happens, and they went down and scored."

"It should have been a power play for us, and it turned into a goal for them," said Briere, who has 10 points in his last five games. "It's a bad break. I think it was the turning point of the game."

The loss snapped the Flyers' four-game winning streak. It was their first regulation defeat of the season in a game in which they led after two periods. They had been 22-0-2.

"I don't think either team was overly happy with the 60 minutes," O'Donnell said. "There were way too many chances on both sides. They got a couple of nice bounces tonight and got the two points. . . . It seemed like whoever threw the puck at the net last had a good chance of winning."