Flyers fail to clinch
Penguins 3, Flyers 2
Flyers fail to clinch
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
PITTSBURGH -- As it turns out, desperation wears many faces: Evgeni Malkin, searching and destroying and the consequences be damned; Kris Letang, breaking out the deep-passing game, stretching the Flyers again and again; Marc-Andre Fleury, still imperfect in goal but gradually continuing to get his feet under him; the crowd at the Consol Energy Center, stirred to a full-throated roar, chanting at one point, “BE-LIEVE...BE-LIEVE...BE-LIEVE...”
And now the Flyers hang on desperately.
What once was a 3-0 lead in the series for the Flyers is now 3-2. In what was the first normal game in an otherwise ridiculous series, the Penguins held on against a pretty relentless Flyers attack in the third period Friday night and won Game 5 by the score of 3-2.
Game 6 is Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center. It is hard to imagine what the atmosphere might be like: fear combined with bloodlust, amplified and lubricated. Because we are not entering the point in the proceedings where the Flyers would not be human if they were not at least a little bit shaken.
They still have the lead. They still are the team that needs only one more win. But the Penguins appear as if they are growing more energized with each shift and each save by Fleury. The Flyers will have to match that energy on Sunday. And they will need to find some comfort in the fact that they really did carry both the first and third periods of Game 5, on the road, in a very hostile environment.
There is no need for them to panic. Then again, we are now in a place where that will be easier said than done.
You cannot pin this one on goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov. When a player the caliber of Jordan Staal, the recipient of one of those long stretch passes, has a chance to rip and fire from the circle, it is not the goaltender’s fault that his glove was not quick enough. When Tyler Kennedy is given enough time to count the nicks in the puck and the scratches on the ice and still fire from the circle -- and through a screen, no less -- it is not the goaltender’s fault.
Those were the second-period goals that turned a 2-1 Flyers lead into a 3-2 Penguins lead. Overall, Bryzgalov looked much better than he did in Game 4, when he was chased from the premises after allowing five goals in about 23 minutes.
A day that began with denials of reports that Bryzgalov had suffered some kind of hip injury, and a morning skate that featured appearances by the troika of Bryzgalov, Sergei Bobrovsky and Michael Leighton, gradually evolved into a normal game for a goaltender and a goaltending situation that craves some normalcy. The Flyers can build on that.
The problem is, at the other end of the ice, Fleury has gotten better and better since his meltdown in Game 3. On a Flyers power play in the middle of the third period Friday night, and in the minutes thereafter, he made a half-dozen of the kinds of saves that goaltenders who have won a Stanley Cup, and who have designs on winning another Stanley Cup, need to make.
They yelled his name, repeatedly, and it was deserved.
Then there is Malkin, who was pretty much sound asleep for the first few games of the series and has now emerged as a force -- a force who, you have to believe, is very close to receiving a phone call from NHL dean of discipline Brendan Shanahan. It would seem about time for a warning, if nothing else.
In Game 4, Malkin could be seen giving Flyers defenseman Nicklas Grossmann a really sneaky elbow that very possibly is responsible for the concussion that Grossmann apparently suffered. (He didn’t make the trip here for Game 5.)
Then, last night, Malkin received a roughing in the first period that helped cost his team a goal, a really unnecessary late hit on Brayden Schenn. Later, in the second period, he received an interference penalty when he ran over Flyers rookie center Sean Couturier, his nemesis all series. It was close to being an elbow, but maybe not. It was close to being a head shot, but maybe he could argue it was a shoulder.
Regardless, two points: Courterier has been getting a really rough ride since scoring a hat trick in Game 2, and Malkin is now just unleashed -- and without a conscience.
So much has changed. So much.
imagine how bad it would be now if refs hadn't given flyers game 1 on an offside call.
— WhatWhiners- TROLL ALERT!!!!!! Another loser from Pittsburgh that feels the need to post on opposing teams boards rather than on his teams board. What a pathetic life you must have. — Daddio
- wow. this will be fun.— ESFjellin
- Would rather do it on our turf anyway.— dogman5
- I hope they blow it so that that wold class puss Laviolette gets canned. He dresses a light in the loafers line up, send in 1 forechecker, does not guard his own blue line, and plays an ice cpades style and I have had enough. Let them lose 4 straight and so they can rid themselves of this horrid horrid puss coach. A tough city like philly deserves a rugged and aggressive team and not a bunch of Scott Hamiltons.— uts
- The worst part is, 99% of the people writing on here hate Rinaldo and those type of players, but love a Wellwood and a Gustafson type player. It's embarrassing how the Flyers along with the fan base have become pussified finesse hockey lovers. I hope they lose. Nothing like 4 lines of finesse hockey. I feel bad for Talbot and Simmonds. I can't believe the 180 this organization has done. A couple years ago we were in the finals with guys like Asham, Lappy, and Carcillo. Now we have guys like JVR and Read going into corners, and not throwing checks. — oobeyboobey
- The Flyers showed no sense of urgency from the start of the 2nd period until the last half of the 3rd. No sustained pressure and more than a couple of bad bounces. The only way there were going to tie the game would have been on a deflection or other weird play. Didn't happen. Now we have to see what they're made of on Sunday. And to think they were set up for a nice rest for the 2nd round.— brio
- They are so cooked now.
All that talk about sweeping, and beating the pens? All gone. Pens in 7.— fmMD - No chance. Its over. The Flower has found his game and Bryz is lost in the woods.— Trashcan_Man
- Ohh Bryzgalov.. I am so sick of you. When was the last time you had SV% of over .900? Did he make any difficult saves tonight?
It's not over. Pens need to win 2 games ot beat us.
— Nitroglycerin - Need to be a bit more ruthless in front; Briere missed 2 point blank chances by shooting into Fleury's pads..............keep workin' boys you'll break them if you do.— Northcountry
- You should pull the goalie at the start of the game— msgeis
- Malkin should definately get a suspension for his hit on Couturiers head. Couturier didn't have the puck and Malkin clearly lined up to put a shoulder squarely on Cout's head.
— Daddio - Waaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! — msgeis
