Flyers-Penguins Game 3 Recap: Beatdown on Broad Street
In a raucous, reckless, and ridiculous Game 3 battle in Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, the Flyers dominated the Penguins 8-4 to take a stranglehold on the series and establish a 3-0 lead with a chance to close it out on Wednesday night at home. The game was marred (or highlighted, depending on your opinion) by numerous brawls and dirty plays. The animosity between the two teams, which until yesterday had manifested itself in the form of hard but clean checks and tenacious effort, spilled over into violence and mayhem inside the Wells Fargo Center, which was transformed into a madhouse for the better part of 4 hours. Here’s what happened in Game 3 on Sunday afternoon:
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Penguins took a 1-0 lead on the Flyers early in the game. After Deryk Engelland and Zac Rinaldo each received 2 minute minors for roughing, Jordan Staal carried the puck into the offensive zone for a 4-on-4 opportunity. He let a wrist shot go from beyond the faceoff circle, and it squirted past Ilya Bryzgalov to give the Penguins the lead less than 4 minutes into the game. It was a bad goal to give up, but in a series that has been full of them it wasn’t the worst. The goal was assisted by Chris Kunitz and Zybnek Michalek. The worst goal would come just a few minutes later.
A little over a minute later, Jakub Voracek received a questionable high-sticking call and the Penguins got a power play opportunity with a chance to take their 3rd 2-0 lead of the series. Today, however, that would not be the case. Claude Giroux took a pass from Matt Carle and motored through the neutral zone and got a backhanded shot on Fleury from a bad angle. Fleury stopped the shot, but left a rebound out in front. Former Penguin Max Talbot, sandwiched between 2 Penguins defenders, flailed at it with a wild backhand and got a tiny piece of it, sending the puck slowly rolling towards the goal. Fleury attempted to smother the bouncing puck with his glove, but somehow it eluded him and he inadvertently knocked it behind him and into the net for another shorthanded goal that would tie the game at 1 apiece. This was easily the worst goal of the series. There was no excuse for Fleury not to save the “shot” from Talbot, and it turned out to be a big turning point in the game for both teams.
Immediately after the goal, a fight ensued and Matt Niskanen, in his first game back from an injury, got 2 separate penalties: one for
roughing, and one for cross-checking. Claude Giroux also received a penalty for roughing, but when all was said and done the Flyers received a power play. 30 seconds after the power play began, Kris Letang took a dumb cross-checking penalty on Sean Couturier away from the play. The Flyers got over a minute of 5-on-3 time, and they took advantage of it. Jaromir Jagr fired a shot that Fleury saved, but the rebound went directly to Scott Hartnell. Instead of jamming the puck into Fleury in an attempt to score, Hartnell calmly looked up and fired a pass across the crease to a wide-open Danny Briere, who held on to the puck for a second before burying it over the diving Fleury to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead with a little more than half the period left to play.
3 minutes later, the Flyers broke out of their zone with a 3-on-2 opportunity. Brayden Schenn, the puck-carrier, passed it across the ice to Wayne Simmonds, who held onto it for a second before finding Danny Briere streaking to the far post, where he redirected Simmonds’ pass into the back of the net to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead.
A minute later, all hell broke loose. Ilya Bryzgalov covered the puck with his glove in an attempt to freeze the puck and earn a whistle. Sidney Crosby slashed at the puck numerous times, triggering a shoving match between the two teams. Things had calmed down and the players were gathering their equipment when Crosby swatted Voracek’s glove away from him. Kimmo Timonen went to take Crosby to task, but was headed off by Kris Letang. Giroux confronted Crosby, and in the blink of an eye a melee erupted. Letang destroyed the outmatched Timonen in a fight, while Giroux got a few shots in on Crosby before the linesman separated them. When it was all said and done, Timonen and Letang were ejected; Crosby and Giroux both went to the box with fighting majors, and Steve Sullivan, Jake Voracek, and Kimmo Timonen all received minor penalties. Despite the fact that Crosby incited both halves of the melee, the Penguins received a power play. The Flyers killed it off, however, and the game went on.
Just 2 minutes later, another brawl ensued. Brayden Schenn went charging into the offensive zone and leveled Paul Martin with a check that was hard, but clean. Former Flyer Arron Asham didn’t like what he saw, and voiced his displeasure by greeting Schenn with a vicious cross-check to the Adams’ apple. If that didn’t make his point, he punched a defenseless Schenn in the head while he was lying on the ice. Schenn got a questionable 2 minute penalty for charging while Asham received a major penalty for roughing and was also ejected from the game. The penalties assessed meant that the teams would skate 4-on-4 for 2 minutes before the Flyers received an unusual 3-minute power play.
A minute into the 4-on-4, James Neal took a pass in the neutral zone and made a nifty leaping move to get between the 2 Flyer defenders and give himself a breakaway opportunity which he promptly buried past Bryzgalov to cut the deficit to 3-2. The goal was assisted by Niskanen and Evgeni Malkin, and suddenly the Penguins had life.
Just 23 seconds later, the Flyers struck back with a 4-on-4 goal of their own. Fleury stopped a Matt Read scoring opportunity, but he left a rebound. A Penguin defender scooped it up behind the net, but Briere picked his pocket and found Read out front for the opportunity and he didn’t waste it, beating Fleury through the 5-hole to put the Flyers up 4-2 and cap the period’s scoring and action.
9 minutes into the second period, Nik Grossmann took a bad kneeing penalty on former Dallas Stars’ teammate James Neal and the Penguins got a power play opportunity. After an errant shot by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin scooped up the puck and found Neal for the 1-timer in the slot that beat Bryzgalov. A minute into the power play and halfway through the period, the Penguins once again cut the lead in half, this time to 4-3.
2 minutes later, Chris Kunitz took a tripping penalty, and with time winding down on the PP Jaromir Jagr made a beautiful cross-ice pass to Matt Read, who buried a one-timer past Fleury on the far post for his second goal of the game, giving the Flyers a 5-3 lead. Schenn, who was back on the ice after the earlier attack by Asham, also picked up an assist on the goal.
Just 90 seconds later, Jordan Staal scored one of the oddest goals of the postseason that rivaled Talbot’s in terms of quality. Neal took a pass from Kunitz and fired a shot on net. Bryzgalov made the save, but the puck apparently got caught up in his padding. When he spread his legs apart, the puck squirted out behind him, where it came to rest on the far post, right on the goal line. Staal skated by and poked it in for what had to be one of the easiest (and luckiest) goals of his career. The Flyers’ lead was cut to 5-4 with just over 4 minutes left in the period.
Wayne Simmonds, however, made sure the Flyers would enter the final period with a 2-goal lead. With time about to elapse on a Chris Kunitz slashing penalty, Brayden Coburn found Simmonds with a long lead pass out of the defensive zone that gave Simmonds a breakaway chance. He dragged the puck from his forehand on the near post to his backhand on the far post and slid it past Fleury for a backbreaking goal with just 45 seconds left in the period.
The Penguins made a goalie change for the 3rd period, sending backup Brent Johnson into net as a replacement for the struggling Fleury. It didn’t matter though, as Claude Giroux smashed a one-timer through Johnson’s legs on the very first shot of the period. The goal came off a beautiful pass from Jaromir Jagr, who had Pascal Dupuis draped all over him. Just 27 seconds into the period, the Flyers took a 7-4 lead.
The period was relatively quiet from that point on, with both Bryzgalov and Johnson making saves to keep the score where it was. However, with 6 minutes to play James Neal took a run at Sean Couturier and left his feet to blindside the rookie with a hard hit to the head. Couturier, who didn’t even have the puck when he was hit, laid face-down on the ice for a while before being helped off by trainers. Unbelievably, Neal wasn’t penalized, and stayed on the ice. 30 seconds later, Neal charged after Claude Giroux, who was well away from the puck, and threw a forearm at the back of his head, sending Giroux sprawling to the ice. Giroux looked woozy as he skated back to the bench, and, for the final time in the game, chaos ensued. The teams came together on the boards next to the Flyers’ bench, and Chris Kunitz took Voracek to the ice with a tackle. Schenn and Crosby grabbed fistfuls of each other’s jersey, and Schenn challenged Crosby to a fight, which Crosby declined until the linesman arrived, separating the two players. The players began to take the ice to resume play. Neal, who unbelievably escaped a penalty, was back on the ice. Wayne Simmonds got in his face and the brawl began anew. Scott Hartnell was skating next to the boards by himself when Crosby jumped him from behind. As the two were tangled up, Craig Adams hit Hartnell from behind and joined with Crosby to gang up on Hartnell, 2-on-1. Adams and Hartnell separated to fight, and after the fight moved to the boards Adams grabbed a fistful of Hartnell’s hair and yanked it. The refs quickly stepped in to end the fight, and penalties were handed out. When it was all said and done, Adams, Hartnell, Neal, Simmonds, and Engelland would finish the game in the locker room. Zac Rinaldo would join them just a few short minutes later.
On the resulting Flyers’ power play, Max Talbot scored a spinning backhand goal assisted by Voracek and Coburn to cap the scoring at 8-4 in favor of the Flyers.
Revisiting the Keys to the Game:
My 3 keys to the game were the energy level, the Penguins’ defense, and the Flyers’ top line of Hartnell, Giroux, and Jagr. It’s safe to say the Flyers matched the Penguins’ energy level, as they traded hits and punches throughout the game. The Flyers, however, kept their energy under control and avoided stupid penalties, which was one of the main reasons they won. The Penguins’ defense didn’t play very well, again, but they certainly weren’t helped by Fleury’s shaky goaltending, as well as the amount of time the Flyers spent on special teams as a result of penalties. Finally, the top line got going in a big way, as the 3 players combined for 6 points between them.