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PHILADELPHIA -- Flyers coach Craig Berube was already getting ready for a shootout. Cheap Nike Air Max 97 Online Gold . "I honestly was ready to pull out my lineup card," he said. Claude Giroux made sure it wasnt needed. Giroux scored at 4:55 of overtime to give the Flyers a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. Giroux received a pass from defenceman Mark Streit and carried the puck over the blue line before letting a shot go from just above the right faceoff circle, beating Antti Raanta high to the blocker side. "I went on the ice with maybe 15 seconds, 20 seconds, so I knew there wasnt a lot of time," Giroux said. "I was just trying to shoot as hard as I could to net. I didnt really aim, to be honest. I just shot it on net." Giroux had previously assisted on a Scott Hartnell goal in the first period for a two-point night. Since Chicago and Philadelphia last met on Dec. 11, in a 7-2 Blackhawks rout of the Flyers, no one in the league has been hotter Giroux. Hes led the league with 51 points in 39 games. Asked about his captains play over the past two months, Berube said, "Hes been playing well for longer than that, I think. Hes playing hard. Hes really, skating, attacking. Hes leading our team. "It starts on the bench. Hes vocal. Hes really into all the time. He does a good job of keeping everybody going." The Flyers needed that kind of leadership after a poor start. Chicago opened an offence-filled first period with two goals just 3:51 into the game. The first came when Andrew Shaw chipped a loose puck near the crease over goalie Ray Emery (23 saves) -- the result of a Brayden Schenn turnover at the other end. Less than 90 seconds later, Duncan Keith, the wide-open recipient of a pass from Jonathan Toews, overpowered Emery with a slap shot from the top of the slot. But the Flyers rebounded thanks to two goals from Hartnell, one set up by Giroux and the other by the Blackhawks. Parked behind the net, Hartnell attempted a pass that caromed off Blackhawks centre Marcus Kruger and found its way into the net off the left pad of Raanta at 5:48. Then at 16:27, Giroux walked out from behind the Blackhawks net and found Hartnell for a one-timer to tie it at 2-2. The goals were Hartnells 17th and 18th of the season. Following an exciting opening period, the pace slowed in the second, when neither team scored. Flyers forward Vinny Lecavalier was involved in two chances that nearly broke the tie in the third. His breakaway attempt with 7:40 remaining was turned away by Raantas right pad, and Schenns almost-goal just over a minute later was waved off when referees ruled Lecavalier touched the puck with a high stick on its way to the net. The Flyers nearly beat Raanta late in regulation, but neither Steve Downie, from a bad angle, nor Schenn, trying to redirect Downies shot on the far post, could put a Hartnell rebound into an open net. But after finding the post twice in regulation, Giroux finally beat Raanta in overtime. "It seems like the endings here have been pretty amazing," said Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, whose team won the Stanley Cup in Game 6 in OT at Wells Fargo Center in 2010. "Tough ending, but a pretty entertaining game ... a pretty intense game." A victory would have given Quenneville the 700th win of his career. His total of 699 is the most among active coaches and the third-most all-time, behind only Al Arbour (782) and Blackhawks senior adviser of hockey operations Scotty Bowman. But rather than pull out a win for their coach, the Blackhawks extended a 10-game, regular-season losing streak in Philadelphia, dating back to Nov. 9, 1996. Quenneville will try again for No. 700 on Wednesday when Chicago returns home to host the St. Louis Blues, whom the Blackhawks trail for first place in the Central Division by eight points. "Obviously, it will be a huge game for us," Quenneville said. "Itll be exciting for us to get to play these guys. I see our team responding and being excited. "Maybe we can chip away and try to catch them (for the division lead), but right now it doesnt look so hot." Notes: Scratches for the Flyers included defencemen Erik Gustafsson and Hal Gill and forward Jay Rosehill. Scratches for the Blackhawks included defencemen Michal Rozsival and David Rundbland and forward Brandon Saad. ... Despite entering the game with two units ranked in the leagues top 10, neither team could take advantage of the man advantage, going a combined 0 for 8 on the power play. ... The overtime win was the Flyers first at home in nearly a year. They topped the Washington Capitals 5-4 on March 31 of last season. Cheap Nike Air Max 97 Online Red .com) - Marc Gasol and the Grizzlies withstood 18 Dallas 3-pointers, as Memphis took control in the third quarter and fended off a Mavericks rally en route to a 114-105 win in a Southwest Division showdown. Cheap Nike Air Max 97 Online White . Their 9-19 record remains identical to the crosstown rivals in Brooklyn and trails both Toronto and Boston in the Atlantic Division. Raymond Felton, their declining point guard, is back on the sideline nursing his third injury of the season. http://www.cheapairmax97online.us/cheap-nike-air-max-97-online-all-blue/ . -- Byron Scott is taking over the Los Angeles Lakers with the vocal support of his fellow Showtime greats.Outside of Canada, there are very few countries where hockey is far and away the most popular sport. Latvia is one of them.Hockeys been always the No. 1 sport really back home, Buffalo Sabres centre Zemgus Girgensons said. Theyre just passionate about it. Its like soccer in some other European countries.Just like soccer fans flock to see the World Cup every four years, Latvians make a point to see their team at every international competition. At last years world championships, many drove over the southeastern border into Belarus, and slept in tents or in their cars to be around for the event.No fan base in international hockey is quite like Latvias. Ted Nolan found that out when he took over the Latvian national team and spent his first scouting trip there watching the fans more than players.The fans were so adamant, they were so boisterous, they were so into the game, you couldnt help but watch and be part of it, Nolan said.Fans followed Nolan and his team to world championships in Stockholm, Helsinki and Minsk and to the Olympics in Sochi.People plan their vacations around their national team, said Nolan, who now coaches the Sabres. Its not a fluid country where the people have a lot of extra cash and a lot of extra money. But this is a part of life they really enjoy, and they save and they use it as a vacation.So when some of the most fervent hockey fans in the world could spend nothing and still make an impact on the sport, they went all out. Girgensons led the NHL all-star voting from the get-go and finished ahead of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and everyone else with 1,574,896 votes.It was a show of force for Latvia, the small country of just 2 million people wedged between Russia and the Baltic Sea. But many of those people cared deeply about getting Girgensons to this weekends all-star game in Columbus.They want to vote him in, and when they saw hes leading, then they decided the mission is now to not relinquish the lead and to make him No. 1 vote-getter, said former NHL goaltender Arturs Irbe, a native of the Latvian capital of Riga. In the eyes of those fans, it puts our country on the map.Girgensons going to the all-star game is just the latest example of Latvian fans going above and beyond in the name of hockey.Irbe, who represented Latvia from before their move up into the IIHFs top division in 1997, said this kind of dedication has been going on for almost two decades.I have had my buddies from playing days travel 24 hours, 36 hours by bus, Irbe said. Partying, then going to the games, partying, going back, staying on a bus sometimes in tents, in camping sites — all kinds of places — because whatever your means are to support your vacation, thats what youre going to use.Its about the love of sport and the fun of partying, Irbe said, but Latvians also see hockey as a point of national pride. At Summer and Winter Olympics before and after being part of the Soviet Union, Latvia has never won a medal in a team sport aside from a bronze in beach volleyball in 2012.Mens and womens basketball have had some strong showings, but hockey is the focus.Our team has always been there — always not the strongest but not the weakest. Always being able to run with the big dogs, Irbe said. For us its important to see somebody in some field do well to be comparable, to be able to stand up to the strongest nations, to the best nations, as equal. Hockeys one of the ways how we can present ourselves being equal players on a world stage.Hockey is a bit like that for Canada, but Irbe said its even more important for a nation like Latvia that doesnt have the size or population to compete with richer, more powerful countries. Cheap Nike Air Max 97 Online All Pink. The Sabres goaltending coach said the success of the Latvian hockey team boosts the confidence of individual people as they go about their daily lives.Two million people, its not a lot for the whole world, and to be able to show that actually we count, we matter and were successful, Irbe said. You have to have some success in life to be able to make next step and next stride towards more prosperity and a better life.Nolan is a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and has coached in the NHL and Ontario Hockey League. But leading Latvia was something hell cherish the rest of his life.Sometimes its even more so than winning a championship. You kind of help build the morale and the enthusiasm of a country, Nolan said. You notice it everywhere you go. People sometimes when were in a sport think the world revolves around sport but really it doesnt. But when youre in that moment where a sport can get people to forget about their worries and their problems and their issues for a few moments, for myself to be a part of that, was tremendous.It took coaching Latvia for three years for Nolan to understand the full scope of what the sport means there. Only now can he explain that to North Americans.If each fan can think back in their memory to one of the most exciting games theyve ever seen and the excitement of the crowd and the jubilation of that crowd in that one particular game, thats how it is in Latvia all the time, Nolan said. Thats how they feel about their game. Theyre very passionate about it.Girgensons is currently the beneficiary of that passion. Olas, a Latvian band, made a Zemgus Girgensons rap video about him, his NHL career and getting more all-star votes than Kane.The 21-year-old was the only NHL player on Latvias Olympic team, but all this newfound attention from the voting is something totally different.I was not expecting anything, Girgensons said. It just came out of nowhere somehow and it just kind of expanded back home as a big thing.With 44 points, Girgensons already has the fourth most of any Latvian to play in the NHL, trailing Sandis Ozolinsh and the late Sergei Zholtok and Karlis Skrastins. In just his second season with the Sabres, Girgensons has become the No. 1 centre and a big piece of their future.Hes one of our better players on the team, Irbe said. Hes a cornerstone for this team probably for years to come and in a lot of ways a good example of what a true warrior, a true Buffalo Sabre is supposed to be with his work ethic and the way he plays.With the NHL trying to make sure each team is represented, Girgensons may have gotten the call anyway. Nolan said the 21-year-old deserved it, but it didnt hurt to have a boost from back home.If there was a vote for anything, Id certainly love to be Latvian because you know youre going to get the support, particularly sports figures, Nolan said. Maybe he got the Latvian vote to help him in this time, but I think his natural abilities are going to help get him in the next time and the times after that.Girgensons is in elite company as just the third Latvian all-star in NHL history, joining Ozolinsh (seven appearances) and Irbe (two). Irbe worried that the league might change voting rules next season because of this, but for now, he and many in his home country will be watching this weekend to see Girgensons among the worlds best.Its a great feeling, Irbe said. Theres another Latvian all-star. Cant beat that.---Follow @SWhyno on Twitter Cheap Jerseys China NFL Jerseys China NFL Jerseys Wholesale Discount Basketball Jerseys Cheap NHL Jerseys Authentic Cheap Baseball Jerseys Free Shipping Cheapest College Jerseys Sale Cheap Football Jerseys China Nike NFL Jerseys Canada Wholesale NHL Jerseys From China MLB Jerseys Outlet Canada Wholesale NBA Jerseys Canada Store Cheap Soccer Jerseys China Cheap Authentic Jerseys Canada ' ' ' [/list]