Scott Hartnell Made Himself a Factor for Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- Scott Hartnell can weave a great story about a guy who went the first nine games without a goal in the playoffs only to rebound and finish as the top goal scorer in the Stanley Cup Final.

It's just not the tale the Philadelphia Flyers forward would really like to pass along.

"The storybook ended the wrong way for us," said Hartnell after the Chicago Blackhawks seized the Stanley Cup with a 4-3 Game 6 victory at Wachovia Center on Wednesday. "For us, it hurts -- every bad adjective in the book. We played well enough to be here. We deserved to be here."

Hartnell went on a 21-game stretch without a goal, when you figure in the regular season. He broke through with a tally in Game 5 against the Boston Bruins -- a series in which the Flyers became the third team in league history to overcome a 3-0 series deficit.

"My game isn't dipsy-doodling around the ice," said Hartnell, who scored five of his eight goals in the Final. "It's going to the net and making good things happen."

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That drought seemed way off in the distance here on Wednesday, when he scored two goals and an assist. His second tied the game, 3-3, with four minutes left in regulation and sent the game to overtime. But it was Patrick Kane who put the Blackhawks over the top with a bad-angle goal in OT.

"I think it's really good for Scott to finish as strong as he did through the playoffs and have the playoffs end on a positive note like that," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "His regular season was a tough year for him, I think on and off the ice. Everything seemed to kind of be put behind him. He focused just on hockey."

Hartnell scored 14 regular-season goals, 16 fewer than last season. But once he was placed on a line with Ville Leino and Danny Briere consistently in the playoffs -- a product of injuries to forwards Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne -- Hartnell's game began to churn.

Briere had a postseason-best 30 points, one better than Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Toews. Leino, who had been a healthy scratch at times, scored several timely goals and ended up with 23 points.

All three forwards are locked up at least through next season, so there's little reason to think they won't at least start next season off together -- even if it was hard for them to think about that at the moment.

"You waited 10 years to be in the Final and it may not happen for 10 more," Hartnell aid. "You don't know if this is the only time you are going to kick the cat. ... This summer and next training camp it will give us a little more fuel to be on the right side of things."