When the final horn sounded, the Penguins and Flyers combined for 148 penalty, 7 ejections and 6 fighting majors. But the most important stat was the 8-4 score, in which the Flyers chased goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and took one step closer to sweeping the Penguins and moving into the second round.
Almost like clockwork, the Penguins got out to a 1-0 lead only to see the Flyers strike back. Jordan Staal scored 3:52 into the first period on a shot that seemed to seep through the pads of Ilya Bryzgalov.
The Flyers came back less than three minutes later on a shorthanded goal from Maxime Talbot. After the goal, mayhem ensued. Matt Niskanen and James Neal went to the box after getting involved in a scrap that also sent Claude Giroux to the box.
With the Flyers already on the power play, Kris Letang took a crosschecking penalty to give Philadelphia a 5 on 3 advantage.
Daniel Briere scored on the power play to put the Flyers up. Just three minutes later, Briere struck again for his fourth tally of the playoffs. Philadelphia, as they had all season against the Penguins, took advantage of Pittsburgh’s overly aggressive offense. The puck came off the boards and Braydan Schenn led a 3 on 2 rush. Schenn crossed the attacking blue line, fed the puck to Simmonds at the point who then found Briere in front of the net for the easy tap in.
From there, frustrations boiled over for Pittsburgh.
A scrum ensued behind the Flyers’ goal as Crosby and Giroux got tangled up. As cooler heads started to prevail, Crosby knocked Kimo Timmonen’s glove away as he went to pick it up. That resulted in a fight between to formally concussed players -Crosby and Giroux- and dueling game misconducts for Timmonen and Letang who also fought.
As Letang skated off the ice, he shushed the crowd in a way all too familiar to Philadelphia fans. The gesture appeared to work, at first glance as James Neal split the defensemen and scored a breakaway goal to cut the lead to 3-2.
The Flyers responded immediately, taking advantage of another turnover by Pittsburgh’s defense. Matt Read came behind the net and scored five-hole on Marc-Andre Fleury just 23 seconds after Neal’s goal.
The second period was relatively peaceful in comparison to the slugfest in the first. The Penguins drew closer on a power play goal by Neal midway through the second. But a bad interference penalty to Chris Kunitz swung all the momentum back to Philadelphia.
Jaromir Jagr took the puck along the half-wall and sent a cross-ice pass to Matt Read for the one timer goal. The Flyers, once again, dominated the special teams battle, going 4 for 7 on the power play and tallying another shorthanded goal.
Pittsburgh brought the Flyers’ lead back to one on Staal’s second goal of the game. But a retaliatory penalty to Chris Kunitz put Philadelphia back on the power play ending in a Wayne Simmonds breakaway goal with 46 seconds remaining in the period.
Dan Bylsma elected to start Brent Johnson in the third period. Any hope of a Penguins comeback was instantly destroyed after Claude Giroux scored to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick, 27 seconds into the period.
With under five minutes remaining in the game, James Neal left his feet to hit rookie Sean Couturier. The 19 year old responsible for shutting down Pittsburgh’s best line all series laid on the ice for a moment before skating back to the locker room. With the referees not calling a penalty, Neal went headhunting again, this time hitting Claude Giroux. From there, the second brawl of the afternoon took place, highlighted by Craig Adams pulling the hair of Scott Hartnell during a fight.
In the final moments of the game, Flyers’ fans chanted “You can’t beat us” to the remaining visitors on the bench. Through the first three games, that has become evident and now, the Flyers have an opportunity to sweep the Stanley Cup favorites at home on Wednesday.
- Max Talbot’s team is now 13-1 when he scores a goal in the playoffs.
- Philadelphia is 6 for 10 on the power play and has scored 3 short handed goals as well.
- Marc-Andre Fleury’s save percentage through three games is .798.
Three Stars
- Daniel Briere
- Claude Giroux
- Jaromir Jagr
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! sports
Discussion about this post