a live look now from high above the wells fargo center. the capitals and flyers will play game six, the flyers have won two straight to make it a series. a win at home today will extend the series for them. this is our nbc 10 pregame show, "flyered up." ♪ >> we have an exciting half hour for you. hi, everyone. welcome to "flyered up." i'm katy zachry, john clark and steve coates will join me in a minute. first let's get you caught up on the series. >> rosemary connors explains how we got here. >> reporter: just three days after the passing of ed snider,

flyers fans came together to watch the flyers and caps open this playoff series. in game one, two things happened, sean couturier got injured and holtby dominated. game one went to washington, 2-0. >> penalties were a big factor. that ended the momentum we were trying to gain. >> reporter: in game two the flyers hoped to win for their chairman, but alex owe vivechki propelled the caps to a 2-0 series lead. >> we will go home, take the next two games. we have great confidence in each other. >> reporter: emotions ran high before game three. early on the flyers rode the momentum. but things turned ugly. the flyers fell apart allowing six goals in a 6-1 loss.

fans showed appreciation by throwing ceremonial bracelets they received in honor of snider on to the ice. >> reporter: with their back to the wall, the flyers turned to backup michael neuvirth in game four. he delivered leading the flyers to a 2-2 win and sending the series back to washington. >> nobody thinks we can win. >> reporter: then came friday night a heroic effort from n neuvirth. he stole game five. >> what quickness from michael neuvirth. >> reporter: stopping all 44 shots he faced en route to an epic win and a return trip to philadelphia. >> what do you expect from that building and from the mood from both teams? >> i expect it to be like every other night in philly, a raucous crowd. we wanted to bring it home for mr. snider. >> reporter: rosemary connors, nbc 10 news. >> a raucous crowd it will be.

here's a look at some philly playoff bests. neuvirth's 44 save performance put him in these rare heirs. halladay in 2010, and terrell owens in 2005, and allen iverson in the 2001 finals. neuvirth is in at least the discussion with these guys. >> let's join john clark who is live at the wells fargo center. good morning, how are you? >> good morning. i'm here with steve coates. everybody is fired up outside. sort of like an eagles tailgate. steve, i want to first ask you, when we look at the performance of michael neuvirth in goal in game five to force a game six,

how unbelievable was it? the flyers had the fewest shots in their history in any game, he had to face 44 shots. >> scary when you think about it. when you look back, there's been some great performances to the pelle lindberghs, ron hextall, kenny ragen in the late '88/'89 season. the other night it wasn't just the amount of shots, it was the quality shots that he made. i'll tell you -- saves he made. absolutely scary how good he was. and i've never, as long as i've been in the business, i have never seen a differential like that and the flyers winning a hockey game. >> it is amazing. after the game michael said i'm not tired, i love facing that amount of shots because it keeps me energized and in the game. any concern after the amount of shots he faced in the last game and going back to the third period in game four going into this game? >> no, i don't think there's a

problem. fatigue can't be a factor. he hasn't played. that was the first game in a long time. hopefully he has the opportunity do it again. hopefully he doesn't have to see that many shots. the washington capitals said they'll try to get as much traffic in front of him as they didn't have the other night. that's the big question now. the flyers have done a nice job of keeping the caps to the outside. they have to continue to do that and keep the caps away from k w neuvir neuvirth. >> we talked about how much the capitals were in the flyers zone in the last game. what do the flyers have to do, steve? >> simple, start in the offensive zone. get pressure on the washington defense. once they do that, it's going to be tougher for the defense to get the puck to the offense of players of the washington capitals to move it out. if they move with speed, they do it like they did the other night with ease into the neutral zone, that causes more problems for

the flyers, now coming through the neutral zone, hitting the blue line of the flyers with speed, they get possession and control. the flyers need to let it happen in the offensive zone. keep it there. ball them up. when they do have an opportunity, make it tough for them to get out. it's a matter of controlling each zone. if they lose puck possession and the caps have it, it will be a tough afternoon for the flyers. >> hopefully that is not the case. coming up, more with coatesy. we will talk about how maybe doubt has crept into the capitals mind again. they have lost nine of the last ten games when they can close out a playoff series. it's happened twice. can it happen again? we'll talk about that. back to you. >> thank you very much. we'll see you shortly. coming up next, we get more on today's game and later we sit down with the rookie who helped spark the flyers to the postseason, drew smith profiles "the goat."

(male #1) it's a little something i've done every night since i was a kid, empty my pocket change into this old jar. it's never much, just what's left after i break a dollar. and i never thought i could get quality life insurance with my spare change. neither did i. until i saw a commercial for the colonial penn program. imagine people our age getting life insurance at such an affordable rate. it's true. if you're 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance life insurance through the colonial penn program for less than 35 cents a day, just $9.95 a month. there's no medical exam and no health questions. you know, the average cost of a funeral is over $8,300.

now that's a big burden to leave your loved ones. as long as you're 50 to 85, you cannot be turned down because of your health. your premium never goes up and your benefit never goes down due to age. plus, your coverage builds cash value over time. call now for free information and a free gift. all i did was make a phone call and all of my questions about the colonial penn program were answered. it couldn't have been any easier and we both got the coverage we should have had for years now. mm-hm, with change to spare. (laughing) (colonial penn jingle)

welcome back. another look from high above the wells fargo center. the flyers looking to extend their season with a win today. for more, let's go to our comcast sportsnet studio and hear their pregame and postgame analysts. hi, guys. >> before the series started, al and i both predicted the

capitals would clinch this in six. however, al, after seeing what michael neuvirth has done over the past two games, i don't know if we expected the series play out like this. will neuvirth have another effort like what we saw in game five in washington? >> he certainly can. he's been terrific here. you see what's happened in the entire nhl, you switch goalies, you switch momentum. it's a far different story now. whatever happened in the first couple games, you have a goaltender playing this hot, and a team with a fragile psyche like washington, it's a bad combination for the capitals. >> they are 3-14 in the last 17 series clinching game. no other team lost more 3-1 series leads than the capitals. they can say they're not thinking about it, but they have fans who are reminding them of that. >> they can say all they want they're not thinking about it, but it's all they're thinking of. especially ovechkin area.

one era was the failures before, now it's the failures with him. what's odd about this, they bring in justin williams to get over the hump, he takes bad penalties in the last game to cause some of the problems. all kinds of stuff to get in their head. the worst place to have this stuff is in philadelphia with the crowd all over them. >> claude giroux and ron hextall said their player is fine. >> you have to think there's something there. they try to hide injuries all the time. the face-off guy, usually he's tremendous there. he hasn't been as dominant there. if it's a big injury, small, whatever it is, something is bothering him more than the washington defense. >> the washington capitals have

eight power-play goals in games one through three, zero in the last two. michael neuvirth is a big reason why. back to you. >> guys, thank you very much. you can get more from al and john and the entire comcast sportsnet crew as soon as the clock hits zero. turn it over to the comcast network for flyers postgame live. complete analysis and locker room reaction as soon as the clock hits zero let's get more on today's game and rejoin john clark and steve coates. >> coatesy, it's fascinating what's happening in this series with the capitals. they were up 3-0. they had two opportunities to close out the series. they have lost nine of the last ten games when they can close out an opponent. you, as a former player, in the back of their minds is there doubt now that the ghosts of playoff past are creeping in? >> every one of those players are telling the media it doesn't

bother them. it bothers them. it's brought up to them every day. everybody was so excited in washington when the flyers went down for game one. the president's trophy. champions, they won't series during the national hockey league season. all of a sudden everybody is saying, wow, that's kind of a bad thing. not many teams move on to win the stanley cup final after that. there was a big black cloud over the city of washington. it's getting bigger, john, because this first period is key. if the flyers can stay close, even have a lead after the first period, there will be a lot of nervousness on that bench. >> now, you look at what's happened to the capitals. they had all the shots. zone possession time in the last game. you go back to the third period, they outshot the flyers the last four periods, 57-15. does that frustrate them or say we're right there. just keep doing what we're doing? >> i would think the latter. you can see the washington capitals continue to do the

things they do to be successful. you have to assume the big forwards will start to wear on the smaller forwards of the philadelphia flyers. they'll have to do a lot of fighting. when you talk about trying to slow them down, that won't happen. play them in the other end and take the pressure off of neuvirth and the defense. a lot of people coming into the series said this would be decided by special teams. amazingly in five-on-five hockey, it's tied 5-5 in goals. flyers are 1 for 21 on the power play, but you've seen the last couple games. how much have they improved their game and discipline not going to the penalty box and keeping the caps off the power play? two things. they've done a great job being disciplined. staying out of the box. the other thing is a better job on the penalty kill. paying more attention to back sfr

backstrom. he can make everything work if they take away his ability, that will make it more effective. power play is a different animal. they have not done a good job. the reason being is the washington capitals chase. they go after the puck. the flyers have not responded to this at all. as a result, you have seen the result. it's not very good. so something has to change. there's got to be a different thought process for the system for that power play to be effective. that's going to be huge in the game today. >> offensively the flyers need to pick it up. last game they got an empty netter, and the puck went off the skate and ryan white got credit. so does claude giroux need to step up? is this a captain's game? >> yeah, claude giroux has to be more involved, wayne simmondays has to be more involved and nobody thought this team would be where they're at now.

because they're here, because of the contributions of the people outside that number one line. here is the day when you need the big boys to step up. >> before we let you go, coatesy, you'll call all of the game on 97.5, give us a prediction for game six? >> i'll say it will go down to the wire. probably an overtime game. the flyers will prevail and we'll head back. >> coatesy predicting a game seven and overtime on nbc 10. thanks, coats y. >> thank you. >> let's hear from the flyers, they know they have to play better in game six. >> face a lot of shots, keeps me in the game. i enjoyed it. guys did a good job in front of me. >> we did the best we could in front of him. trying to eliminate the high quality chances. they were shooting pucks from everywhere. impressive.

>> we're used to that from him. he had a couple games this year where he stood on his head. he's such a competitor. he competes every day like that in practice. >> what we need do is do a bit better job under pressure. a lot of times you have a little more time or a little more space than you think so we have to work together to take advantage of those small areas. >> we won't play like we played last game. we had one unbelievable performance, that was from michael. we fully intend go out there and have a way better game. 100% better game. we know we didn't play our best hockey. our goalie was our best player. sometimes you need that. >> the one thing here, michael neuvirth since he has come into the series, he's been the best player in the series. the flyers cannot count on him again to have these spectacular performances. they have to improve

offensively. but the capitals are a little tight right now, they don't want to collapse in the playoffs again. the flyers know they have a littled ed advantage now. and the flyers confidence and belief has risen after going down 3-0 in the series and they're hoping to force a game seven and go back to washington because then the pressure, it will really be on the caps. i'm john clark downstairs close to the flyers locker room. see you at 6:00 tonight. coming up, he's been the anchor of the defense and a spark to the offense. he's shayne gostisbehere and his plain catapu play catapulted the flyers into the postseason. >> and we'll get a live report from the fans coming up. "flyered up" returns after this.

we're back with another look at the wells fargo center. the noise should be deafening as the flyers try to push the top seed in the playoffs to the brink, but only if they can win today. the series has gone much like the entire season, an early hold and then comes shayne gostisbehere. his power play tally helped the flyers inch past the caps by a 2-1 margin. he's a star on the rise. and drew smith has the exclusive

profile of the man, did they call ghost. >> reporter: he's delivered game winners. his name has its own emoji when he scores. >> he scores! >> reporter: he's shayne gostisbehere and living the ride of a lifetime. >> it's everything a kid could dream about, not only putting on the nhl sweater for the first time, just everything that comes with it. >> what comes with it has been a stunning ride. the kid they call ghost has been the team defensive mvp. at 22 he's the youngest player in flyer history to win the award. he has confidence in his game and the sort of his team. >> confidence comes from your teammates as well. teammates building you up, letting you know belong her. >> reporter: his talent got him to the nhl. his captain helped the young defenseman know he belonged. >> first or second game i was called up, jesus came to my face

and said i want you to shoot the puck, shoot everything. one of them will go in. >> back up, he scores! >> the first shot i had, put everything i had into it. it was my first career goal, of course. thanked him a lot. the rest of the guys, building me up, giving me confidence to go out and do that. >> with success comes attention. it helps to have a coach that keeps you grounded. the ghost has that in dave hakstol. >> he's been a great supporter not only of my play but as a professional. he's the one who settles you down. he comes to me and tells me, hey, keep doing what you're doing. stay within yourself. remember where you came from. what got you here. >> ghost may be his nickname, but if his high level of play continues, he'll be visible to fans. for the moment he's able to move about the city freely, something that is just fine with him. >> i went out to dinner last night, nothing happened.

maybe it was dark or something. >> reporter: drew smith, nbc 10 news. >> he has some humility. gostisbehere led all rookie defendm defensemen this year and is a candidate for rookie of the year award. the flyers will be leaning on him heavily today. we'll be right back.

that will do it for this edition of "flyered up." the flyers record for game six

in a series is 20-18. for all of us here at nbc 10, thank you so much for watching. here's one more look at how we got here. the caps dominated the first three games of the series beating the flyers by a 12-2 count. a goalie change has sparked the orange and black. they are still alive after allowing just one goal over the past two games. here's a final reminder. count on nbc 10 for live hockey action. the puck drop comes your way next in a few minutes from now. the comcast network's flyers postgame live immediately follows the game. thanks for watching, everyone. enjoy your hockey sunday. go flyers.

nbc sports, home of the 2016 rio olympics. the nhl, pre premier league, the sprint cup playoffs and sunday night football. only on nbc. >> welcome tphiladelphia! it's game 6, flyers and capitals. michal neuvirth coming off shutout in game 5 leads the flyers on the ice. here come the washington capitals who lead the series three games to two. kenny albert, joe micheletti. down to joe with the captain of the