Bruins blast Flyers, 5-1, in Game 3

BOSTON - Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, who dabbles as a psychologist, had said his team would put on its "comfortable slippers" as it headed into Game 3 of their Eastern Conference semifinals Wednesday night.

As it turns out, slippers don't work well on the TD Garden ice.

The Flyers got pushed around in the first period, allowed two goals in the opening 63 seconds, and never recovered as they dropped a 5-1 decision to the Boston Bruins.

This is not a recording: Boston leads the series, three games to none.

Yep, the Flyers have them right where they want them.

It was last year, of course, when the Flyers became the third team in NHL history to overcome a three-games-to-none deficit as they made an epic comeback, which included a 4-3 Game 7 win after they trailed, 3-0.

Game 4 will be at TD Garden on Friday night.

The Flyers vowed to play Wednesday like it was an elimination game.

"We have to," center Claude Giroux said before the opening faceoff. "Obviously we came back from 0-3 last year, but I don't think our guys want to do that again. It was stressful."

It will be this year, too.

The second-seeded Flyers hoped the return of Jeff Carter would bolster their lineup Wednesday. Instead, they fell into a hole that seemed unfathomable when the series started.

Boston, Team Payback, is now 6-0-1 against the Flyers since its meltdown in last year's playoffs.

The Flyers are 1-6 in series in which they trail, three games to none. They have not been swept in the playoffs since the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals against Detroit.

With a straight face earlier this week, Laviolette told reporters that the pressure was all on the Bruins because they were now "expected" to win the series after taking the first two games at the Wells Fargo Center.

Laviolette was playing "mind games," Boston forward Patrice Bergeron said before Wednesday's opening faceoff.

"No comment," Boston coach Claude Julien said when asked earlier Wednesday about Laviolette's psychological warfare.

The Bruins did all their talking on the ice, where they sent the Flyers to their worst start in the franchise's playoff history.

Boston got goals from Zdeno Chara (a slapper from deep inside the left circle) and David Krejci (a shot from out front) in the first 63 seconds to take a stunning 2-0 lead - and ignite mocking chants of Boo-SHAY toward goalie Brian Boucher.

It was the fastest two goals ever allowed by the Flyers in the playoffs. The previous record: Edmonton scored twice in the first 85 seconds of Game 3 in the 1985 Stanley Cup Finals. (The Flyers lost that game, 4-3).

Boston sent several Flyers to the ice with clean, hard checks in the opening period. Rookie Brad Marchand led the way with four of them.

The Bruins also won 82 percent of the first-period faceoffs (14 of 17).

Krejci's goal was his fourth in the first three games of the series. He was injured and missed the final three games of last year's matchup against the Flyers.

Entering the night, the Bruins were 5-0 against the Flyers in the last two playoff series with Krejci in the lineup. They were 0-3 without him.

Daniel Paille finished off a three-on-two rush - defenseman Danny Syvret got caught on the other end of the ice and couldn't recover in time - to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead with 6 minutes, 21 seconds left in the second period.

Boston, seeded third, made it 4-0 and sent Boucher to the bench as Nathan Horton put a right-circle shot under the goalie's legs with 4:46 left in the second.

Rookie Sergei Bobrovsky replaced Boucher - the sixth time the Flyers had made an in-game goalie change in 10 playoff contests this season. That equaled the most by any NHL team in the playoffs since the Minnesota North Stars made six changes in 1991.

A little over a minute after Horton's goal, Andrej Meszaros cut the deficit to 4-1 by scoring from the left circle. That ended goalie Tim Thomas' two-game streak of 68 consecutive saves without a goal.

Heading into the final period, the Bruins had won 97 percent of the faceoffs, had a three-goal cushion, and were on the verge of forcing the Flyers to play another elimination game.

Chara scored on a power-play with 18:38 left to ice it.