Eric Lindros again took advantage of the battered New York Rangers, breaking a 2-2 tie with seven seconds to play Friday night to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 3-2 Game 4 victory and a commanding lead in the Eastern Conference finals.
The Flyers lead the best-of-7 series 3-1 and New York could be eliminated in Game 5 Sunday in Philadelphia.Lindros, who scored his first playoff hat trick in the Flyers' 6-3 victory Tuesday night, backhanded a blind backhand pass from John LeClair from the left circle on a power play with goaltender Mike Richter out of position.
The Flyers were on the power play because New York's Jeff Beukeboom was given a double-minor when his stick hit LeClair in the face, cutting him on the bridge of the nose.
New York's Brian Leetch, whose sprained wrist had kept him offensively weak Tuesday and for most of Friday's game, tied the game 2-2 with 2:08 remaining on a behind-the-net feed from Wayne Gretzky.
A shorthanded goal by Esa Tikkanen, consistently one of the best - and healthiest - Rangers in the playoffs, tied the game 1-1 1:41 into the third period.
With Ulf Samuelsson serving a penalty for roughing, Tikkanen took a pass from Doug Lidster and faked two Flyers defensemen for a clean shot on goalie Ron Hextall.
Philadelphia went ahead again at 16:47 on a shorthanded goal as John Druce went around Rangers defenseman Bruce Driver at the blue line, rushed in to fire a slap shot that Richter failed to hold and then flicked the rebound high into the net for his first goal of the playoffs.
Just as in Tuesday's game, the Flyers held New York scoreless through two periods, this time relying more on Hextall as the Rangers were markedly more aggressive, but still disorganized.
New York in turn relied on Richter, who held the 2-2 tie with two sprawling saves in the last minute of regulation. His goaltending was especially important in the first period when the Rangers repeatedly turned over the puck in their own zone and took five penalties to the Flyers' two.
Philadelphia scored on the first power play as the New York defense collapsed into Richter and Mikail Renberg shot through the screen, making it 1-0 at 7:08 of the period.