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.
Fageddabout it! Penguins found their game and the bear is chasing Bryzhgalov.— DuckKnows- anyone blaming Bryz for tonight has no idea what they're talking about and should watch another sport. The D was horrendous in the 2nd period and the only reason the Pens didn't score in the 3rd is because Bryz made two great saves and then the Pens focused on D. It is a sign of a know-nothing fan when they blame every goal on the goalie.— phillyfan27
- Kubina and Lilja are just horrible. Both around 7min of ice time. Disgusting.— Nitroglycerin
- Not east being a Philly fan......nothing ever comes easy......just gotta believe they step up in game 6.......JVR gets his legs and is the difference maker!!!!!— PhillyCrab
- Apparently it's ok to use opposing players as sand bags and sit on them in front of the net if you're the Penguins.— stonelamb
- Start Leighton— largato
- Bryz had a save percentage of .870. Not good enough - Fluery made some of those same saves. Hofmann doesn't have a clue here.— matthew76
- No need to panic, panic after game 6 if we dont win on Sunday.— Fabulous
- Got to love phillyfan27, ask you self "know it all fan" besides save on Letang what else did he do? While you at it count hwo many scoring chances to MAF shut down tonight? shut your yup.— Nitroglycerin
- Pens are done...their goalie had to stand on his head in their own house. Cindy was quiet, they are done.— 2ndNlong
- Keep up the Cindy talk, dummy, it just inspires him more. — msgeis
- What's changed. Reporters are tainted by the story lines they create, mere fiction. Two evenly matched teams start with zeroes on the time and score clock each night. This was a great hockey game. The Flyers didn't "fail" but executed their mission passionately and competently...just the other guys did it better. The Flyers should be mad that Pittsburgh is being permitted to maul and elbow to the head. I'm sure they talk about it, and for the most part were disciplined tonight. It's a seven game series, that was never deemed to end prematurely.— retzlaff
- What a bunch of whiners on here. Geezus. The Flyers lost this game more than the Pens won it. 3 posts, 4-5 whifs in front of open net and Briere had 2 point blank shots into Fluery's pads. Yeah FLuery played well but so did Bryz. They win this on Sunday.— puckurself
- Hey nitro I never said bryz played better than fleury, just that it would take ridiculous plays to stop those shots. But typical idiot poster completely spinning what I wrote. If coburn doesn't pinch on the second goal and if someone actually watched kennedy on the 3rd no scores there. Try responding to that with actual analysis of the game, but I doubt you can, to busy rubbing off your ego.— phillyfan27
- It's funny how these penguin fans come out of the woodwork after they win a few games but were invisible since the flyers went up 2-0 except for what whiners. He at least stays online, win or lose. The rest of you guys are loser...get some balls— Mikerichardsucks
