Eastern conference final: Flyers avoid the sweep.

The Philadelphia Flyers avoided the elimination yesterday in their series with the Pittsburgh Penguins. With a productive first period, the ''Broad Street Bullies'' were finally able to establish their physical presence in this series.

The Flyers were solid early on and it was good for three unanswered goals from the 9th to the 18th minute the first period. First Joffrey Lupul at even strenght, then Daniel Briere and Jeff Carter each during a man-advantage.

With the lead, the Flyers did focused on Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Marian Hossa. The constant bodychecks managed to get under the Penguins stars players' skin. There were many retaliations from Crosby during the second part of the game.

Only Jordan Staal managed to beat Martin Biron yesterday. But he did in fact managed to beat him twice during the third period. So with just under six minutes to go the Penguins were only one goal behind. A quiet and anxious crowd started wondering if their team could hold on.

But the Flyers managed to hold on to their reduced lead, mostly because the Penguins never really organized themselves to produce some kind of pressure on the Flyers. Joffrey Lupul scored in the empty net. The last minute of the game was full of retaliations and utter frustration scrums.

Final score: Philadelphia Flyers 4 - Pittsburgh Penguins 2 (Pittsburgh leads the series by 3-1)

Both teams have a date with each other Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh for game five of the series.

(Picture: Mike Richards and Joffrey Lupul, Getty Images.)