Flyers Move To Second Round

Buffalo
Sabres

"You're not going to get easy goals against Dominik Hasek, but tonight we found a way," Flyers Daymond Langkow said.

After several years of first-round disappointments, the Flyers now advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the first time since 1997. Who they play in the second-round is still up in the air, but it will be Pittsburgh if the Penguins beat Washington. Philadelphia was 3-0-1 against Pittsburgh in the regular season.

"We wanted to make sure we weren't going back to Buffalo again," Flyers captain Eric Desjardins said. "This is the start of what will hopefully be a great run. We have ourselves in a great position now, and we have to keep going. We played solid as team, we supported each other in every area on the ice. It was the little things that made the difference and it won't be any different in the next series."

The defending Eastern Conference-champion Sabres were eliminated in the opening round for the first time since 1995, when they were bounced by the Flyers in six games.

"Anything you don't improve on the year before, when you feel you have a stronger team, it is disappointing," Sabres captain Michael Peca said. "There were some rough spots in our season. This is, obviously, the biggest one."

Brian Boucher made 20 saves to for his first career playoff series victory.

"I'm very happy right now," Boucher said. "When you play against a team like that, you can't spot them any goals, if you do you're not going to win. It was a really tough test for us. We should feel like we can beat any team right now."