Early Fight Sparks Flyers Against Habs
(from CSNPhilly.com)
By Tim Panaccio
CSNPhilly.com
February 13, 2010 - Four seconds.
That's all it took for the Canadiens to respond to Friday's melee after the final buzzer of a Flyers' 3-2 victory in South Philly.
Four seconds for young 25-year-old Ryan O'Byrne to drop the gloves with a 36-year-old Canadien favorite, Ian Laperriere.
The Flyers' grinning center dropped O'Byrne like a bag of rock salt with an overhand right to the face.
"He asked me to go right from the get-go," Laperriere said after Saturday's 6-2 rout over Les Miserables. "Yesterday, was a little bit chippy. I'm sure he didn't like what happened in the third period last night.
"He asked me to go right at the face-off. I knew it might be a really good start for our team if the fight would go my way, and it did."
It went the Flyers' way the entire night as they swept a home-and-home, back-to-back series over Montreal and went into the Olympic break on a four-game winning streak.
"I really liked the fact that Lappy was physical right off the opening faceoff," said coach Peter Laviolette.
"He made it a point to let everyone here know we were here to play. Montreal came out and skated well and we skated well right off the bat. I thought we competed hard."
Chris Pronger said the fight backfired for Les Miserables.
"It kind of set them back on their heels," Pronger said. "We were pressing, physical, moving our feet and able to capitalize on our chances."
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net