Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

CHICAGO - Depth and goaltending, that was supposed to be what separated Chicago from Philadelphia in this Stanley Cup final.

Right on cue, they were the difference in a 2-1 Game 2 crippler for Philly.

Chicago walked off with the victory despite being out shot and out-chanced by the Flyers.

Today, Antti Niemi the next great Finnish goalie from the tough side of Helsinki, who barely made the Blackhawks last fall, is garnering Conn Smythe votes.

They're chanting his name after games at the United Centre. When they chanted his name at his old rink in Vantaa, it was because the ice needed scraping and he was the Zamboni driver.

"You've got to look at his performance up to this point. It's the reason why we're here," Blackhawks centre Patrick Sharp said. "We've got a lot of good players, and we're playing a great team game. But he's the backbone."

Niemi was stand-on-his-head brilliant in stopping 32 shots, beaten only by a puck he couldn't see. Then came the depth, in goals from ice-cold Marian Hossa and a fourth-liner with one previous playoff goal in his life, Ben Eager.

Goaltending and depth.

It has the Flyers at death's door, with the series shifting now to the Wachovia Center and the Hawks on a 7-0 run on the road.

"I'm not sure we should be frustrated," said Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette, with hope in his voice. "I don't think we got outplayed … probably out shot them, out-chanced them a little bit and didn't get the result we were looking for."

If you would have told the Flyers they would score five goals in Game 1 and not take a single penalty, Laviolette would have bet the Rocky statue that his team would win. If you told him that through two games, the Hawks first line of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Dustin Byfuglien would combine for a grand total of one assist, he would have been thinking sweep.

Instead, all of those things occurred and the Flyers are going home in a mighty big hole. Down to a team that has now won seven straight playoff games and 10 of its last 11. Chicago is on a 13-2 run since a slow start to Round 1 against Nashville.

Folks this train does not look like it is going to be derailed any time soon.

"I thought we were way too conservative in the first two periods," said Philly centre Danny Briere. "We didn't forecheck, we didn't create much offensively, we didn't spend much time in their zone."

The Flyers threw everything they had at the Blackhawks in the third period, out shooting them 15-4. But Niemi was one focused Finn. He outplayed the guy at the other end - Michael Leighton - even if Briere is not yet willing to give Niemi the credit he deserves.

"Honestly, I don't think we tested him very much," Briere said. "I thought we made him look good with outside shots way too often. He played well in the third period, but we didn't create much traffic, we didn't have many quality chances."

After 27:09 of scoreless hockey - this on the heels of a 6-5 Game 1 - Leighton let a rebound tarry in his crease and Marian Hossa buried it. It was the first dent in a fine performance by Leighton, who bounced back well after playing like a nervous wreck in the opener.

Or, at least, for the first 27 minutes he bounced back.

Because the very next time the Blackhawks came down the ice - 28 seconds later, to be exact - Leighton showed a glimpse of why he has surfed the waiver wire so often throughout his journeyman career.

Ben Eager, a fourth-line winger who had one playoff goal in 32 post-season games, walked over the blue-line and drifted a 30-foot wrist shot high over Leighton's glove.

It doesn't matter if defenceman Matt Carle was screening the goalie, or if it was a hard, well placed shot. If you're going to win a Stanley Cup, your goalie has got to make that save.

Leighton did not and like San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov, Leighton is beginning to resemble one of those goalies who is just good enough to get you beat.

Now, the numbers are stacking up against the Flyers.

There are the hard stats - teams that go up 2-0 in the final series have a 31-2 record - and the more subjective ones, like this:

When the other goalie is better than yours, and you blow a chance to win Game 1 the way the Flyers did, you usually end up losing.

They don't keep those stats in the record books. But they are as true as anything you'll find in the Guide and Record book.