Flyers dominate Sabres 5-2, head to Round 2

PHILADELPHIA — They did it with a revolving door of goaltenders.

They did it without their captain scoring a single goal.

They did it, for the most part, without their star defenseman.

The Flyers will move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for a lot of reasons, but mostly because Danny Briere played like a man possessed and Brian Boucher played like a man on a mission to prove himself.

As a result, the Flyers stomped the Buffalo Sabres 5-2 Tuesday night in front of an intimidating sellout crowd of 19,966 at the Wells Fargo Center, clinching their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals 4-3.

The Flyers now must watch two more Game 7s tonight to know which team -- the third-seeded Boston Bruins, the fourth-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins or the fifth-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning -- they'll face in Round 2.

If the Penguins beat the Lightning tonight, and the Canadiens beat the Bruins in their Game 7 tonight, the Flyers will face the Penguins in Round 2 and the Washington Capitals will face Montreal.

If the Lightning beat the Penguins and the Canadiens beat the Bruins, the Flyers face Tampa Bay and Washington will face Montreal in Round 2.

And if the Lightning beat the Penguins and the Bruins beat the Canadiens, the Flyers will face the Bruins and Washington will face Tampa in Round 2.

The second round likely will begin in Philadelphia on Saturday, with Game 2 Monday.

"It would be nice to see them play as long and hurt each other as much as possible," Briere said with a laugh after scoring one goal and assisting on another. "We'll watch. It's going to be exciting."

The Flyers dominated the Sabres from start to finish Tuesday night, getting goals from Briere, Braydon Coburn, James van Riemsdyk, Ville Leino and Dan Carcillo to chase Sabres goalie Ryan Miller and put the finishing touches on a series they trailed three games to two.

Before Tuesday the Flyers were 2-14 in series they trailed.

"Our experience really showed," said Briere, who finished the series with six goals, tied with Teemu Selanne for the most in the NHL. "It's not a secret. We played a lot of big games in the last year with mostly the same group.