Flyers-Leafs. Get in the game. Just take your time getting there.

	Alexander Mogilny leads Toronto with five playoff goals, but he's been out since Game 3 with a concussion.

Of course, Philadelphia's stop-and-go hockey team has been there and done five OTs before. Three years ago in Pittsburgh. A game quite literally played like human chess that spanned almost an entire Mario Lemieux retirement.

But the last two Toronto legs of this Eastern Conference quarterfinal marathon far outpaced that Penguin trot. In the Maple Leafs' 4-3 double-overtime win in Monday's Game 3 and the Flyers' 3-2 triple-overtime salvation in Wednesday's Game 4, the action was unabated by tired legs, unimpeded by sore scoring eyes.

"A couple of guys started dehydrating," said Flyers captain Keith Primeau. "Just before (scoring the winning) goal, Rex said his legs were starting to cramp. But the mood was good. We were just trying to stay with what we were doing."

It was all Primeau could do to drop a hug of relief on linemate Mark "Rex" Recchi, whose wrister from a faceoff circle was the 75th shot the Flyers wearily threw Ed Belfour's way, and almost unbelievably, this one squeezed through his 37-year-old legs, tying the series.

Aside from that, Recchi had reason to be relieved himself.

"I gotta get home," said the 35-year-old father of three. "I'm having a baby. Well, my wife's having a child in the morning. Greatest thing in life. I'm looking forward to it."

One chartered plane flight and several hours later, Recchi would be a proud papa again. But there would be no sleep inducements needed later in the day.

Don't think they can't all stagger through again in Game 5 Saturday, though. Whatever it takes, such as the 3 hours, 34 seconds for Game 3 or the 4:42 of Game 4, these two old and gritty teams willingly oblige. Whatever it takes?

"Man," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said Thursday, "we can't play much better than that, eh?"

Um, nay.

The Flyers' goaltender was a prime suspect in a Game 1 loss, but Roman Cechmanek has gotten steadily more confident with each passing eternal game.

The Flyers' pumped-up offense has been inordinately active, just not as successful with finishing touches against the gritty Leafs as it wants to be.

The Flyers' supposedly solid defense has been OK, but hasn't looked much better than the Leafs' crippled corps.

And the power play? Try 2-for-21 on the series. Of course, Philly's power play was awful all season.

"I think in the first three games our power play was really good," Hitchcock protested. "We really created a lot of chances. But (Wednesday) our power play was poor. In the areas of composure and puck strength, that was the first time in several games we took a step back."

Ah, but why debate one hockey angle of a series offering any number of more interesting storylines?

In the Leafs' locker room ...

A second straight year of overcoming injuries by a grizzled (read: old) team of former stars and veteran overachievers.

An unprecedented walkout of a once-top player (now ex-Leaf Shayne Corson) in the middle of a playoff series.

And that burning question: Does Alexander Mogilny have a concussion or doesn't he? Only his play in Game 5 will show for sure.

The latest update is Mogilny will play, leaving only Doug Gilmour (knee), Nik Antropov (broken foot), Ric Jackman (back) and Corson (acute colitis, not-so-cute attitude) on the outside looking in.

But this is a Leafs team that last year dealt with assistant coach Keith Acton overcoming cancer, head coach/general manager Pat Quinn finding out in the playoffs that he'd need heart surgery, and a team that lost player after player in the spring and still made it all the way to the Eastern Conference finals.

As for the Flyers' list of juicy playoff sagas ...

Sorry, the team is healthy and playing pretty well. And the players aren't in the frame of mind to fire their coach like they were this time last year. But not all is so rosy.

What if the Flyers can't survive this series, thereby going out in the first round for the fifth time in six years? Perhaps a parade through the clubhouse doors will ensue, with Primeau and Cechmanek maybe leading the way.

It is that underscore of anxiety and desperation of these two graying, gritty teams that has lent such an air of authenticity to this playoff series. It hasn't provided the glitziest of highlights (Colorado's Patrick Roy), the biggest surprises (an Anaheim sweep) and not always the most intense atmosphere (St. Louis-Vancouver).

But Flyers-Leafs has been the longest series, and the most physically entertaining one by far.

Jarring checks in every game thrown by both sides. A crowd-pleasing fight in Game 2 between longtime heavies Donald Brashear and Tie Domi, complete with typically mimed Domi replay antics after the fight. And there was the hit that shelved Mogilny and his five goals and six points right near the end of Game 3 -- Jeremy Roenick tagging him with a stick to the chin while falling backwards, courtesy of a Mogilny slew foot.

Was that intentional on his part or deserved on your part, Alex?

"You guys give me a headache," Mogilny responded.

As the Leafs would find out the next day, however, something else was actually making Alex's head hurt. Too bad Mogilny was knocked silly (um, but not necessarily concussed, the Leafs are careful to say), or the Leafs would have the Flyers begging for their playoff lives right now instead of bragging about home-ice advantage in a best-survivor-of-3 series.

At least Mogilny had a rink-side television seat for a signature series moment in the opening minute of Game 4: Roenick taking a check to the head by Darcy Tucker that qualified as a "Remember The Alex!" battlecry, if not a badly overlooked penalty.

Roenick looked like a bad B-actor from a '50s Western, staggering in dramatic fashion after getting shot in a slow draw. Then he staggered to his skates and got in Tucker's face as he was heading for the box.

"I told him it was a great hit," Roenick said with a straight (if puffy) face. "It didn't surprise me that he tagged me as well as he did. It might have been a charge, or a rough, or a boarding penalty, but he plays gritty and I love that style. That's playoff hockey. Unfortunately I felt like crap the rest of the night. I'm going to have someone carry me to the bus. That's how bad I feel."

"Sometimes getting hit is the best way to get into a game," Roenick said. "For myself, getting hit real early kind of woke me up really quick. Well, woke me up and put me out a little bit. It definitely woke up the bench."

Asked if he'd been examined for a concussion, Roenick said, "I'm not going to go check for one. I'm not going to let those doctors near me. They can only cause me trouble."

Little matter, for Roenick was awake and somewhat alert at that midnight hour when Recchi made everything all right again. For now, anyway.

In truth, this might not be a technical gem, but it has been a very well-played and extraordinarily entertaining series by the Leafs and Flyers. Philadelphia is the better team, but has weaknesses in goal and on special teams that have been exposed. Toronto is the grittier team, but you have to wonder how long it can hold up under constant battering by Philadelphia's superior forecheckers.

Sure, Mogilny is ready to come back and make a difference again. But if Ed Belfour can't recover from Wednesday's war with his will or his legs intact, the Leafs are in trouble.

One thing's certain, all you wide-eyed viewers -- it's going to be fun finding out.