Through the first 40 minutes of play, the Pittsburgh Penguins dominated the Philadelphia Flyers, showing why they had won the previous 11 games and looked well on their way to run their streak to 12.
But the Flyers scored the next three goals including an overtime winner in the last second to end the Pens’ winning streak.
Scott Hartnell scored two, including the game winner, as the Flyers defeated the Penguins 3-2, Sunday, at the Wachovia Center.
The Penguins outshot the Flyers 27-10 through the first two periods, and led 2-0 going into the second intermission. Craig Adams redirected Kris Letang’s shot 13:21 into the first period to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead. In the final minute of the second period, Evgeni Malkin cut across the net and slipped the puck under Flyers’ goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.
The Flyers cut the lead in half 31 seconds into the third period on a slapshot from the point by Kimmo Timmonen. It was just the third power play goal allowed by the Penguins since mid-January.
Less than 4 minutes later, Scott Hartnell roofed a shot over Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game at two. Evgeni Malkin lost the puck to Wayne Simmonds in the defensive zone. Simmonds found Claude Giroux who used a slap pass to find Hartnell alone by the goal line. Hartnell’s shot went over the left should of Fleury and into the net.
The third period was in complete contrast to the first two periods. The Penguins not only held a strong shot advantage, they prevented the Flyers from registering a shot in the second period through the first 15 minutes. By the end of the period, the Flyers recorded just two shots but acquired a power play after an ill-advised slash from Zbynek Michalek.
From there, the Flyers took over, dominating the Penguins for much of the third period outshooting them 14-11.
In the last seconds of overtime, the Flyers took the puck with one more rush. Scott Hartnell came off the bench and the Penguins failed to pick him up. Daniel Briere fed Hartnell in between the face-off circles resulting in the game winning goal; a wrist shot into the top right corner of the net with .9 seconds remaining.
Flyers’ goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, kept the Flyers in the game, stopping Sidney Crosby on multiple chances, along with 38 other shots from the Penguins. After suffering through a lackluster month in February, Bryzgalov has rebounded, going 7-0-1 in March with a 1.10 goals against average coming into Sunday’s game.
- The Penguins host the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday, returning after a three game road trip.
- With the overtime loss, Pittsburgh is now 1 point behind the Rangers for the Eastern Conference lead.
- Evgeni Malkin scored his 41st goal and league-leading 88th point of the season.
- The Penguins lost while giving up a power play goal for the first time since January 10th against Ottawa.
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