CHICAGO | The Philadelphia Flyers can try to beat Antti Niemi long and high.
They can try to sneak shots in via rebounds amid frenzied scrums by the net.
The Hawks' opponents, down 2-games-to-0 going home tonight to the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, will take a goal punched in upside down if Niemi finally allows it. They haven't solved the Hawks' rookie goalie when it really counted in the third period of Games 1 and 2, scoring only on Simon Gagne's power-play goal Monday night.
Niemi has stopped 20 of 21 Flyers shots in those pair of closing periods. If the 26-year-old Finn hasn't proved himself a Stanley Cup-worthy goalie to the skeptics by now, he might never will.
"I hope so," forward Patrick Sharp said of Niemi finally earning his just due. "We've known it all along. He's been fighting all along to prove it to the critics, trying to prove himself all season long. If he hasn't proved it to people by now, I don't know what else he has to do."
To prove he's a top-shelf goalie, Niemi has to do it in the Stanley Cup Finals where the whole hockey world is watching.
"It seems like it," Sharp said. "We don't worry about what people on the outside say about us. We believe in him as a goalie. He's been great for us.
"That's all that matters."
The Flyers are best advised to score early and often on Niemi, then hang on for dear life against a Hawks comeback. They aren't easily going to rattle the calm Niemi, who always has come back in the playoffs from dips in performance.
When coach Joel Quenneville pulled Niemi at the end of the second period in favor of Cristobal Huet after allowing five goals in Game 1 of the semifinals against Vancouver, he came back in Game 2 to stop 26 of 28 shots in a 4-2 victory. He also won Game 3 by a 5-2 count.
Of course, Niemi allowed five goals in the first two periods in Game 1 against the Flyers. But his shutdown style in the final period set the pace of the game and led to the Hawks' victory.
"It's a great thing that it's been that way," Niemi said of his ability to shake off bad outings. "I want to keep it that way later, too. But maybe it comes out of how I feel after the bad game or game allowing five or four goals. I don't know how it happens."
Quenneville knows the Hawks can't continue to rely on Niemi's bailout efforts.
"No, we certainly didn't want to spend that much time in our own end, and the quality that they're getting, we had to be better," he said. "They're coming, they're pressing, and they've got a lot of guys that can make plays."
Niemi at his best will set the tone for the game the Hawks prefer to play tonight -- a repeat of much of Game 2 minus the perilous pace in the third period.
"It was a little bit more of what everybody expected," Sharp said. "Tight checking, not a whole lot of offensive chances, not a lot of room to skate out there. Maybe that's what people expected in Game 1 and didn't get it.
"Whatever the style, whatever the score, it always seems to come down in the end with one-goal games with two evenly-matched teams. Whatever the style of play of Game 3 will be, both teams have to be ready to adjust."
QUEST FOR THE CUP | STANLEY CUP FINALS
Game 3
(Chicago leads series 2-0)
Blackhawks at Flyers
Where: Wachovia Center, Philadelphia.
When: 7 p.m. today.
TV/Radio: Versus (cable); WGN-AM (720).
Editor's note
George Castle will be covering the Stanley Cup Finals in Philadelphia for The Times. If you are traveling to Philly for Games 3 and 4, please e-mail sports editor Justin Breen at justin.breen@nwi.com with your full name, hometown and contact phone number.
More inside
George Castle notes that the Flyers still to stop acting like the Broad Street Bullies. PAGE B3
After lacking notoriety for years, the Blackhawks are back on center stage. PAGE B3
