Flyers-Penguins Game 2 Recap: It’s Raining Goals
Flyers 8, Penguins 5. There’s something about this Flyers team. Something that doesn’t allow them to give up or quit when the going gets tough. Something that rests deep inside each and every player on this team, a desire and hunger that simply refuses to roll over when they dig themselves into an early hole. Last night, that special “something” that the Flyers have manifested itself again in an 8-5 Game 2 win on Friday night against the Penguins in Pittsburgh that saw the Flyers trail 2-0, 3-1, 4-3, and 5-4 at various points in the game before going ahead for good in the 3rd period and taking a commanding 2-0 series lead. Here’s how the game unfolded at the Consol Energy Center:
The Flyers have gotten off to poor starts all season, but last night might have taken the cake as the worst of them all. The puck dropped, and 15 seconds later it was in the back of the net. The Flyers attempted to change all 5 players on the ice as soon as the puck dropped and the Penguins got an odd man rush. Pascal Dupuis fed the puck to Sidney Crosby, who made a beautiful give-and-go pass with Steve Sullivan before burying a one-timer from his knee. For the second time in 2 games, Crosby opened the scoring with an early first period goal. The Penguins led 1-0, but it certainly didn’t faze the Flyers.
After a back-and-forth next several minutes that saw the Penguins get the better of the play, Nik Grossmann was called for a hooking penalty on Chris Kunitz. The Penguins, after going 0-3 on the PP in Game 1, were looking to capitalize on the opportunity and halfway through the power play James Neal found Kunitz for the redirection goal in front of the net to put the Pens up 2-0 with half the period left to play. Evgeni Malkin also picked up an assist on the goal, his first point of the series. Peter Laviolette called his timeout in an effort to stabilize the team and regroup the troops after yet another sluggish start.
The Penguins picked up another power play just a minute and a half later, as Nik Grossmann was called for holding James Neal. Grossmann wasn’t happy with the call, but this power play would turn out to be the turning point of the game. With 30 seconds left in the power play, Sidney Crosby found Kris Letang with a spectacular cross-ice pass. Letang had the puck on his stick and almost the entire net to shoot at. He held the puck on his stick for an extra second to make sure the shot would be perfect, and then fired it at the top right corner of the goal. But Ilya Bryzgalov’s glove suddenly materialized out of nowhere, as he slid across the crease and made what was probably the save of the season, snaring Letang’s wrister in his glove. The referees actually had to go to video review to make sure Bryzgalov’s glove wasn’t in the net when it took a goal away from Letang. They ruled it hadn’t, and the save counted. Immediately after the save, Matt Read and Letang were whistled for offsetting penalties: Read for roughing, Letang for diving. Read nudged Letang after the whistle and Letang dove forward as if he’d been shot in the back. Lucky for the Flyers, the referees noticed it and kept the Penguins from getting a 5-on-3 opportunity. Claude Giroux won the next faceoff and got behind the Pittsburgh defense for a breakaway chance. Marc-Andre Fleury made the initial stop on Giroux’s backhanded shot, but his momentum carried him out of the goal and he left a juicy rebound out in front for former Penguin Max Talbot, who deposited it into the net for a shorthanded goal for the Flyers that cut the deficit to 2-1 with just over 7 minutes left in the period.
The Flyers desperately wanted to get to the dressing room down just 1 goal, but they couldn’t manage to do so. Sidney Crosby accelerated through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone before dropping the puck back to defenseman Paul Martin. Martin found the back of the net with just 17 seconds remaining in the period on a low wrist shot through traffic that went over Bryzgalov’s right pad. Pascal Dupuis also picked up an assist, and the Penguins went into the locker room up 3-1 and feeling good about their chances to win the game.
After the Flyers successfully killed off a penalty early in the period, Sidney Crosby was whistled for a rare penalty of his own for interfering with Nik Grossmann. On the power play opportunity for the Flyers, Jakub Voracek carried the puck down below the goal, and after some nifty stickhandling he found Claude Giroux in front of the net. Giroux buried the wrister for a PP goal that cut the lead to 3-2. Kimmo Timonen also picked up an assist on the play.
Just over halfway into the period, Brayden Schenn went to the penalty box for interfering with Sidney Crosby, as he blatantly cross-checked Crosby to the ice away from the play. On the ensuing faceoff, Claude Giroux won it and made his way up ice with Max Talbot. He found Talbot, who skated on in and dropped the puck off behind him for Giroux, who snapped one off the far post and in to tie the score at 3 on his second goal of the night just 10 seconds into the PP.
The Penguins wasted no time responding, however. They still had the man advantage, and Evgeni Malkin won the ensuing faceoff and charged forward. He found James Neal with a deft backhanded pass and Neal’s shot went off Bryzgalov’s pad and to the far side of the net, where Chris Kunitz deposited the rebound into the wide-open net for his second goal of the night and a 4-3 Penguins lead just 6 seconds after the Flyers had tied the game.
The rest of the period was filled with hard hits, as multiple Flyers were upended and sent flying into the glass. There were numerous scoring chances for both sides, but Bryzgalov and Fleury both stepped up and turned away each shot they faced. That is, until the very end of the period. Brayden Coburn fired a shot from the point that was deflected by Nik Grossmann in front. Fleury made the save, but the rebound bounced out to his left where 19-year old rookie Sean Couturier lifted it past the diving Fleury for his first career playoff goal with just 2.3 seconds left in the period. It sent the game to intermission tied at 4, and the momentum was all with the Flyers as the 3rd period loomed ahead.
Just a minute into the all-important 3rd period, Tyler Kennedy gave the Penguins another lead that would turn out to be their last of the game. Matt Cooke found Kennedy in the offensive zone, but Kennedy was forced to his backhand by the Flyers’ defense. He threw a backhanded shot on net that somehow beat Bryzgalov through his 5-hole. Kennedy did have a clear shot on net, but the puck was moving slowly enough that it absolutely should have been saved. Bryzgalov simply didn’t get his pads down quickly enough, and the Penguins had another lead. It was the only soft goal that Bryz gave up on Friday night, and it probably was evened out by the spectacular save he made on Kris Letang earlier in the game. Jordan Staal also picked up an assist on the goal.
The Flyers got up off the mat and responded just 17 seconds later. Sean Couturier took the puck from Ben Lovejoy on the forecheck and split the 2 Penguins defenders, deked, and sent a wristshot past Fleury to tie the score at 5-5 with almost the entire period left on an unassisted goal. It was Couturier’s second goal of the game, and both had come in the last 1:22 of game time, which was the 2nd-shortest time period between a player’s first 2 playoff goals in NHL history.
After an 8-minute stretch that saw no penalties or goals, but plenty of bone-crunching hits and end-to-end action, the Flyers took a 6-5 lead on a Jaromir Jagr goal. Jagr cycled the puck behind the net to Giroux, who found Pavel Kubina at the point. Kubina took a thunderous shot that went off Fleury’s pad to Jagr, who spun around a defender while skating away from the goal before releasing a low shot that beat Fleury past his outstretched right pad. The Flyers had their first lead of the game with 10:47 left to play.
The next 8 minutes saw the Penguins get the better of the chances, but Bryzgalov weathered the storm and kept the Flyers in front. With under 2 minutes to play, James Neal unleashed a hellacious slap shot that Bryzgalov somehow kept out of the net. The Penguins had 2 rebound opportunities, one that Bryzgalov saved and the other that went wide of the net. Jakub Voracek grabbed the puck behind the net and sent it up ice to Claude Giroux, who chipped it off the boards and around a Penguin defender to set up a 2-on-1 chance. He found Couturier, who put it in the back of the net to give the rookie a hat trick and put the Flyers up 7-5 with 1:49 to play.
With under 10 seconds to play, Couturier forced a turnover in the neutral zone and unselfishly gave up the puck to Claude Giroux, who beat the last Penguin defender and backhanded the puck into the net for a hat trick of his own that capped the scoring for an 8-5 Flyers win. With the goal, Giroux also set a Flyers’ playoff record for most points in a single game with an incredible 6 point performance. He was also an impressive +4 on the night, tied with Brayden Coburn and Couturier for second on the team. (Max Talbot recorded a staggering +5).
Revisiting the Keys to the Game:
My 3 Keys to last night’s game were the first 10 minutes, containing Evgeni Malkin, and Marc-Andre Fleury. While the Flyers certainly didn’t start the game off well again last night, falling behind 2-0 after the first 10 minutes, they still played much better in that timeframe than they did in Game 1. They did have scoring chances, so while they didn’t improve their start on the scoreboard they still got better. Baby steps, I guess. The Flyers did a very good job containing Evgeni Malkin. He did pick up 2 assists, but neither of those was a primary assist and both came on the power play. When the two teams were even strength, Malkin was not much of a factor in last night’s game and he was a -4 as a result. Finally, my last key was how Marc-Andre Fleury played. Quite simply, he played poorly. There’s no way any goalie should give up 7 goals (the last goal was an empty-netter) on just 30 shots faced. Fleury recorded an abysmal .767 save percentage, and while his defense didn’t do him any favors he still needed to play much better for the Penguins to pick up a crucial win in Game 2.
The series moves to Philadelphia for Game 3, which is being played on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM EDT at the Wells Fargo Center. It’s important for the Flyers not to let up now that they’re ahead 2-0 in the series and on their home ice. If they can win one of the next two games in Philadelphia, it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll win the series.