PHILADELPHIA — 'You can still get it."

Bernie Parent looks more today like a riverboat card dealer — styled silver hair, clipped Van Dyke beard — than the goaltender who once won two most-valuable-player awards bringing Stanley Cups to this city, but the words have not changed.

"There's still a Philly flu," he says. "Only it's different. It used to be out on the ice, but now it's mostly in the crowd. When we won, I used to say 75 per cent of our success was the crowd."

Last night, it might have been closer to 100 per cent for the first two periods of the Flyers' 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, giving Philadelphia a 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven playoff series.