John Madden.

PHILADELPHIA — There is a trend emerging with these Chicago Blackhawks.

They aren’t always the best team on the ice, but when you look around after the final buzzer sounds Chicago is the one celebrating. Night after night this spring.

How does that happen?

"Somehow we end up with more goals than them?" offered John Madden.

Seriously. In the Western Conference final, the Blackhawks swept the San Jose Sharks by scores of 2-1, 4-2, 3-2 and 4-2.

Game 4 ended on an empty net goal. So really, out of the four games, three were ostensibly one-goal games. Game 3 went into overtime.

Now, look back at the first two games of this Stanley Cup final. A pair of one-goal games: 6-5 and 2-1.

The common theme? The Chicago Blackhawks won all six of those games and ride a seven-game win streak into Game 3 at the Wachovia Center on Wednesday night.

Again, we’ll ask the question: How do they manage to do it?

"You know, I don't know," said Madden, scratching his head. "We've just been able to hold our composure a little better. Obviously, Dustin Byfuglien in the San Jose series came up with some big goals for us. Timing is everything.

"We've just been able to hold on, or get the penalty kill at the right time or the power-play goal and that's always been the difference. That's playoff hockey."

It is the kind of hockey played by teams who tend to end up waltzing the big silver bowl around the ice, that’s for sure. So far, this Stanley Cup final is leaning Chicago’s way despite the fact that, with a few breaks of their own, the Flyers could quite conceivably have stolen both games at the United Center over the weekend.

"We were in both of those games in their building," said Philly defenceman Chris Pronger. "Now it's up to us at home and maybe the bounces are going to go our way this time."

It is one of the oldest tenets of the game for a team that dominates the third period of Game 2 the way the Flyers did. Simply keep up the pace, maintain that dominant level of play and the breaks will begin to fall your way.

It has to happen, right? Well, go ask the San Jose Sharks if it ever happened for them.

"The Blackhawks did what they were supposed to do and they defended home ice. Now it's up to us to do the same thing," Pronger continued. "Although many of you (media) folk might not give us much of a chance, we're not too worried about what you guys think. We're worried about what we think in the locker room. We think we can win."

For his part, Madden isn’t too interested in dissecting success. For whatever reason, his team is coming out on top. Why question it?

"A lot of times people will look back on a Series and say, you know, San Jose could have won a few games if they just had a couple breaks," said the former New Jersey Devil. "But right now we're getting the breaks and hopefully we'll continue to get those."

If the breaks don’t begin to turn for the Flyers — and soon —frustration will set in. That is, if it hasn’t already begun to.

"Frustrating and irritating to come back 0-2? Yeah," said head coach Peter Laviolette. "I think everybody in our room believes that you play the game a certain way, you try to do the right things on the ice. You hope that you can generate more quality chances in the opposition and when you do it and it's a margin of 2-1, you expect better results than 0-2 (in the series).

"The place we didn't win was on the scoreboard. That's the most important thing this time of year. So I think frustrated? Yeah. Irritated? Definitely.

"And anxious for tomorrow? Can't wait."