Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

PHILADELPHIA — The feel-good story wasn't feeling very good at all in this Stanley Cup final.

The Chicago Blackhawks, the heavy favourite and a team with an embarrassing amount of talent, were flawlessly rolling through seven straight post-season victories. They won an unheard of seven straight times on the road, and emotion barely entered into the equation..

Philadelphia, meanwhile, was that team of destiny whose mojo was running low. Whatever magic it is that allows teams to erase 3-0 series deficits, or lifts it to a Stanley Cup final after barely making the playoffs to start with, the Flyers were running out of it.

Then Philadelphia scored an overtime winner 4:52 into the fourth period — or so they thought. But the puck merely rode almost the entire length of the goal line.

It never went in.

A piece of snow. Just a touch of in-turn spin on the puck.

The Hand of Ross Lonsberry.

None showed up when the Flyers needed them the most, and for a moment you had to think, like the Montreal Canadiens a round before them, was the Philadelphia story about to conclude?

But it turns out they haven’t been making this up. There really is something special about this Flyers team.

"Any time we find adversity, we find a way to get it done," said Claude Giroux, the 22-year-old who would re-direct home the OT winner just 67 seconds after video replay proved the first Flyers effort had not crossed the line. "We’ve got a lot of character in the room… and when guys are on the same page, you have more fun. When we’re having fun, we play good."

We’re all having more fun now, with the Flyers climbing back into this series with a 4-3 overtime victory in Game 3. This game was played in fast forward, with the kind of brutal physicality that embodies playoff hockey in Philly.

Once denied in OT, the Flyers simply refused to take no for an answer.

"You know, when the chips are down, when nothing is going your way," said Philadelphia captain Mike Richards, who still has but one assist in this series, "you just keep your head down and keep working."

After owning the third period in Game 2, the Flyers had to think that way. They had to believe that the breaks would come.

The problem was, San Jose had already walked that road this spring. Now the Sharks are doing wine tours, because the breaks never arrived and the Hawks swept them in four.

But Philly believed. For the second straight game they out-hot Chicago 15-4 in the third period, and finally, the hockey Gods smiled on them just enough.

Their break arrived. Just in time.

"Actually, my buddy texted me," said Giroux, the Hearst, Ont. product who has nine playoff goals now. "He usually doesn’t text me a lot, but he said ‘I’ve got a feeling you’ll score the overtime winner tonight.’ I texted back ‘You’re crazy.’

"Probably the biggest goal in my career."

Probably?

To be frank, Giroux hadn’t done a thing in this series. But neither had his Flyers, who were starting to fall into that familiar role of all of the Chicago Blackhawks’opponents this spring. They all figured they were playing all right, but just not winning any games.

Meanwhile, the Chicago depth players were producing — fourth-liner Ben Eager has a goal and assist through three games — while Philly’s supporting cast was more like The Legion of Tomb.

Giroux came through with two points in Game 3, and Matt Carle — Chris Pronger’s partner on defence — assisted on the last two Flyer goals.

This was, by some margin, the finest game of this series. Two fast, big, tough teams, playing like their hair was on fire.

Patrick Kane scored his first of the series on a breakaway in the third period, but 20 seconds later Ville Leino restored the tie. "We didn’t even have time to dwell on it on our bench," Richards said. "It seems things like that don’t even faze us."

On the same night a veteran umpire cost Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game with a blown call in the ninth, referee Bill McCreary worked Stanley Cup final game No. 43, passing Bill Chadwick for the most in history.

So it should be said that this record breaking game was, as usual with McCreary, impeccably officiated.

As well as Philly has played for six straight periods, they deserved this. There was no magic here.

Just a good Flyers team getting its just desserts.