VIDEO: The Philadelphia Flyers Beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4; Sparks Fly in the Final Minutes
The Philadelphia Flyers came out flat against their in-state rival the Pittsburgh Penguins. In a potential first-round playoff match-up Philly fell behind 2-0 in the first ten minutes, but they showed strong character and scored five unanswered to win 6-4.
Flyers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky had a couple great glove saves, but he gave up a goal less than three-minutes in to Steve Sullivan. The puck fluttered in on a weird deflection from Sidney Crosby, it was Sullivan’s 16th of the year. James Neal added another for the Pens on a great feed from Evgeni Malkin, who was set up behind the net.
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette called a timeout right away and talked to his team. ”We weren’t very sure the first ten minutes,” he said. ”They had a lot of jump when they came out here. We needed to be a lot better then we were playing.”
With 4:51 left in the first Claude Giroux fired from the point and the puck trickled five-hole through Pens netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. It all started from a great setup from Jaromir Jagr, to help cut the lead to 2-1.
After struggling early Bobs stood tall in the final minute of the first period turning away several chances for the Penguins. He was able to keep the score 2-1 at the end of one.
The Flyers quickly tied it quickly to start the second. Former Penguin Max Talbot lifted the stick of Fleury and tipped it past him.
Kimmo Timonen headed the locker room shortly after it was announced that Nicklas Grossmann would be out for the remainder of the game. The Flyers were left playing with just four d-men. Timonen did come back out a few minutes later, he hurt his leg blocking a shot. With the delepeted corp on the blueline Braydon Coburn had to pull a triple shift during the second.
Bobs played a great second period, stopping 15-shots from the Penguins. After a shaky first period, Bobrovsky really settled in nicely in the second period. If it was not for his play in the second there was no way it would have stayed 2-2.
The Flyers were on an abbreviated powerplay, when Wayne Simmonds buried a rolling puck from Jakub Voracek. The goal put the Flyers on top 3-2, just 2:35 into the third. Then at 6:37 in third Jake ‘The Snake’ Voracek had a break away and went backhand, forehand, and then slipped a backhand past Fleury. Marc-Andre Bourdon and Sullivan would trade another for the Penguins. Voracek would add an empty netter.
The sparks would fly after the empty netter. In the final minutes several brawls broke out on the ice and almost on the bench. Laviolette and Penguins assistant coach Tony Granto were at the end of the benches yelling at each other. Laviolette was being held back by assisant coach Craig Berube, then Lavy and Granto were tossed from the game. Timonen said, “I cannot wait for next Saturday.”
Chris Kunitz scored with 32.0 left make it 6-4
Philadelphia now has 101-points and are just one behind Pittsburgh. If nothing changes between now and next Saturday, the final match-up between these two will be for home ice in their first round meeting. The Flyers are now 4-1 against the Pens this season.
Follow Johnny on Twitter @JohnnyMacNHL.
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