Flyers-Penguins Game 4 Recap: Put The Brooms Away

The Penguins avoided the sweep by embarrassing the Flyers on their home ice by a score of 10-3 Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center. Here’s a recap of what went down in Game 4:

The Flyers, for the first time all series, scored the first goal of the game. On the power play early in the game, Claude Giroux received a great pass from Jaromir Jagr on the far side of the net. He flubbed his shot, but it still managed to get through Marc-Andre Fleury’s 5-hole. Just 1:16 into the game, the Flyers had the lead, the arena was rocking, and Fleury looked flustered. The sweep seemed inevitable. Wayne Simmonds also picked up an assist on the goal.

Evgeni Malkin evened the score just 2 minutes later with his first goal of the series. On his way out of the penalty box, he received a pass and found Pascal Dupuis, who threw a shot on net. Ilya Bryzgalov, who had a rough game, couldn’t control the rebound and Malkin, who was crashing the net, poked in the rebound for an easy goal.

5 minutes later, Matt Niskanen scored his first goal of the series on a Penguins’ power play, assisted by Sidney Crosby and Steve Sullivan. He blasted a one-timer from just outside the faceoff circle past a sliding Bryzgalov. It was the first PP goal for the Penguins on the night, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last.

The lead stood until there were 5 minutes left in the period, when the Flyers got a 5-on-3 power play. After some nice puck movement and blocked shots by the Penguins’ defense, Kimmo Timonen blasted a point shot through the legs of Fleury to tie the score at 2. It was assisted by Claude Giroux and Danny Briere.

45 seconds later, the Flyers struck again. On another power play, Jake Voracek deposited the puck into a wide-open net after a great pass from Wayne Simmonds from one side of the net to the other. Scott Hartnell also picked up an assist on his 30th birthday, and the Flyers led once again.

30 seconds later, the puck was in the back of the Flyers’ net and the score was tied. Matt Niskanen fired a shot from the point that was deflected by both Sidney Crosby and Sean Couturier, and the puck redirected over a surprised Bryzgalov’s shoulder. Crosby was given credit for the goal with assists going to Niskanen and Malkin.
A minute later, the Penguins took the lead. After a wild scramble at the side of the net, a puck squirted out to Jordan Staal, who was all alone and had the entire net to shoot at. He calmly put it in for the goal, assisted by Eric Tangradi and Matt Cooke. This capped the scoring in a hectic first period.

From the second period onwards, it was all Penguins. Helped by steady stream of Flyers players to the penalty box, they put in 5 goals in the second period, with the first 3 coming on the power play. I’ll spare you the gory details, but goals were scored by Kris Letang, Jordan Staal (his second) and Steve Sullivan on the power play, and later in the period Pascal Dupuis added one and Jordan Staal scored his 3rd. Bryzgalov was pulled after Staal’s goal, the 5th of the game, but Sergei Bobrovsky fared no better, giving up 5 of his own later on. Assists on the 5 Pittsburgh goals went to Crosby, Sullivan, Kennedy, Cooke, Fleury (yes, that Fleury), Kunitz, and Engelland. The Flyers seemed lifeless in almost every facet of the game. The offense went silent after the first period (although that was probably due to all the time on the PK), the defense seemed disinterested, and the goaltending was poor. Evgeni Malkin added a goal in the 3rd period, his second of the game, assisted by Kunitz and Kennedy. Flyers Zac Rinaldo, Wayne Simmonds, and Pavel Kubina were all ejected from the game, although only Rinaldo’s was a dirty hit and none of them are expected to face disciplinary action from the NHL.

Revisiting the Keys to the Game:
My 3 Keys to the Game were Marc-Andre Fleury, taking advantage of suspensions and injuries, and staying under control. All of these keys went in favor of the Penguins. After a shaky start to the game, Fleury rebounded and didn’t allow a goal after the first period, stopping 22 of the 25 shots he saw. He looked to be back on form late in the game, making a couple of nice glove saves. The Flyers didn’t take advantage of suspensions at all, as they allowed a depleted Penguins offense score 10 goals on them and they couldn’t score a single even-strength goal against a shorthanded Penguins defense. The Flyers were the ones who played out of control, as the Penguins got 9 power plays to the Flyers’ 5, many as a result of dumb penalties. The Flyers need to right the ship in Game 5 back in Pittsburgh, or this series could get very interesting.