Jessica Bopp-OVathletics.com
Tuesday night’s game in Pittsburgh kicked off the home-and-home series against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Penguins’ in-state bitter rival. The last time the teams met—on October 8th—Flyer Scott Hartnell allegedly bit the finger of Penguin Kris Letang, as the Pens defeated the Flyers 5-4.
The first period saw a lot of action. At 3:30, Sidney Crosby scored a power play goal—finally improving on the Pens unsuccessful streak—as Matt Carle served two minutes for hooking. Ruslan Fedotenko and Sergei Gonchar assisted on the goal. Crosby has now scored 21 goals, as well as 21 careers goals against the Flyers in 27 regular-season games.
Then the mayhem broke out. Mike Rupp dropped his gloves against Aaron Asham. Six seconds after that, Godard did the same against Riley Cote. And then 10 seconds later, Craig Adams and Dan Carcillo fought it out on the ice.
Only a few minutes later, Crosby set up Bill Guerin with a rebound to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Pens. But Dan Carcillo scored a power play goal for the Flyers at 11:46, as Malkin served his first of two penalties in the first period.
But as the first period was winding down, Jordan Staal racked up another point for the Penguins with a shorthanded goal—his second of the season and 10th of his career. This was Jordan Staal’s first multi-goal game since November 15, 2008.
The second period was a quiet one until Staal scored again with 15 seconds left bringing the score up to 4-1. Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby were credited with assists.
The Penguins didn’t stop there. Ruslan Fedotenko put one past Flyers goalie Brian Boucher. Evgeni Malkin and Eric Godard assisted. Then, Jay McKee assisted Malkin on a shorthanded goal.
The Pens not only defeated the Flyers 6-1, but they were 1 for 4 on the power play.
Thusday’s game in Philly was a more tone down game compared to Tuesday’s.
It was the Flyers’ Jeff Carter who registered the first goal only 75 seconds into the game. His initial shot was stopped by Marc-Andre Fleury but the rebound hit off of Penguin Sergei Gonchar and went into the net. Matt Carle and Danny Briere assisted.
But Bill Guerin tied the game at one just over a minute and a half later. His ninth goal of the season was a shorthanded goal that came from Chris Kunitz.
In the second period, it was the Flyers who took the lead again as Claude Giroux gave the rebounded Dan Carcillo’s shot for a power play goal….
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