PITTSBURGH – It unintentionally became '80s night at the Consol Energy Center Friday night.
By Gene J. Puskar, AP
The Philadelphia Flyers' Maxime Talbot celebrates his first-period goal with teammate Claude Giroux (28) during Game 2.
Leaky defense. Open ice. Slick puck movement. A bushel of goals.
When the ode to Wayne Gretzky era hockey was finally over, the No. 5 Philadelphia Flyers had a 8-5 victory against the No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins and a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal.
The series now moves to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4 on Sunday and Wednesday.
Rookie Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux both scored hat tricks.
Adding insult to the Penguins' injured pride was the fact that the winning goal was scored by former Pittsburgh star Jaromir Jagr. He had spurned the Penguins last summer to sign with the Flyers after his return from the Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League.
At 9:13 of the third period, Jagr broke his stick on the follow-through as he twirled around and fired a shot past Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
Couturier completed his hat trick with 1:49 remaining in the game after James Neal had just missed tying the game at the other end of the ice.
The wildly entertaining game began the third period in a 4-4 tie. That lasted 64 seconds before Tyler Kennedy scored to give Pittsburgh a 5-4 lead.
That lead stood 17 seconds before Couturier scored after stealing the puck from defenseman Ben Lovejoy. It was also Lovejoy trying to stop Jagr on game-winning goal.
As has been their custom in recent weeks, the Flyers didn't start their offensive machinery until they fell behind 2-0.
After Chris Kunitz scored a power play goal at 9:27 of the second period to provide the Penguins with a two-goal lead, the Flyers began to become more involed.
While the Flyers were shorthanded, Claude Giroux knocked the puck away from Pittsburgh Sidney Crosby inside the Flyers' blue line, and then raced down the ice on a breakaway. Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped Giroux, but Maxime Talbot cleaned up the rebound to pull the Flyers within in a goal.
Pittsburgh fans seemed to boo even more loudly than usual after that goal because Talbot, the Penguins' Game 7 Stanley Cup hero in 2009, had left Pittsburgh to sign with the Flyers last summer.
The Penguins seemed as if they were going to say in control when Paul Martin scored on a drive from the high slot at 19:42 to regain Pittsburgh's two goal lead.
Similar to what happened in Game 1, the Flyers began to become the better team in the second period.
At 5:11, Giroux scored a power play goal to make it a 3-2 game. When the Flyers were shorthanded, Giroux added his second goal, with Talbot picking up the assist, to tie the score at 11:04 of the period
But six seconds later the Penguins answered with Kunitz scoring his second goal on the power to give Pittsburgh a 4-3 lead.
It stayed tied until the Flyers tied the game at 4-4 when Sean Couturier flipped the puck into the empty net after he found the rebound that Fleury gave up when he stopped Braydon Coburn's shot from the point.
The Flyers' second period surge also included a memorable save by Philadelphia goalie Ilya Bryzgalov on Kris Letang. Sneaking in the back door, Fleury fired a shot that Bryzgalov gloved as he slid across the crease.
Fleury also thwarted Talbot on a breakaway in the second period.
The Penguins' offensive explosion began almost immeidately when Crosby scored 15 seconds into the game after working a give-and-go with Steve Sullivan.
Crosby's goal tied Greg Malone's 31-year-old team record for the fastest playoff recorded at the start of a game. The Flyers have never allowed a quicker in their long playoff history.
The first Kunitz tally also marked the ninth time in the last 14 games that the Flyers have fallen behind 2-0.
0 comments:
Post a Comment