The Philadelphia Flyers had a really good run in the 1999-00 playoffs, but fell one game shy of meeting the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The team faced the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals, which turned out to be a tightly contested series, with multiple games being decided by just a goal. The teams split the first two games and the pivotal game three was on deck to see who could jump to the lead in the series.
Game Three gets underway
There was no love lost between these division rivals and that was not going to change in Game Three on May 18, 2000. The Flyers jumped to a 2-1 lead in the first period. The team was ready to strike again after the Devils' Claude Lemieux took a high-sticking penalty at the start of the second.
The Devils, a team hellbent on destroying the sport of hockey with the neutral zone trap, were positionally sound on the penalty kill. Captain Keith Primeau lost the puck to Sergei Nemchinov (I think) along the boards and Keith Jones (again, I think) let out an audible F-bomb as he trailed Patrick Elias out of the zone.
The Save
Twenty-five years ago today, rookie net-minder Brian Boucher made history with a highlight reel save.
Elias beat Keith Jones to the puck and headed on a shorthanded breakaway. He deked on the way in and broke left. Elias beat Boosh stick-side but not glove-side.
Boosh would not be able to get over in time to stop Elias. So, the rookie did what nobody expected: he dropped to his back, contorted his body, and managed to cross his glove hand behind his back and stopped the shot.
The momentum propelled the Flyers to win that game in the next to put them up 3-1 in the series. And that's all I have to say about that.