What a fantastic night of action. Between the wild games in Philadelphia and Montreal, and Sean Avery 's most recent shenanigans, there's plenty to talk about, so let's get right to it. In Philadelphia, Steve Downie made his nearly-triumphant return to the city of brotherly love as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and he put on a display of the best he has to offer, as well as the worst he has to offer. The Flyers ended up pulling out a chaotic overtime win.
Early in the opening period, Downie gave Flyers fans a nice reminder as to why they shouldn't be missing his antics, as he picked up a pair of penalties at the 2-minute mark, giving the Flyers an early power play. Jeff Carter took advantage of the opportunity by firing a shot behind Tampa Bay goalie Mike Smith for the game's first goal.
From that point on, Smith and Philadelphia goalie Martin Biron were walls in net, holding down a tie until the third period. And that's where things started to pick up.
Mike Richards scored a shorthanded goal just seconds into the period, giving the Flyers a lead. Just four minutes later, Carter picked up his second goal of the game -- and 18th of the season, tying him with Buffalo's Thomas Vanek for the league-lead -- as Philadelphia appeared to build itself a nice cushion.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, Tampa Bay was able to get a lucky bounce to pull within one, which set the stage for Downie to burn his former team at the minute mark, tying the game at three.
