Unsung heroes help Penguins beat Flyers
Asked before the Penguins and Flyers resumed postseason hostilities about what might decide a series between seemingly evenly-matched teams, former Stanley Cup champion Chris Kunitz dodged the obvious.
"It's usually unsung heroes," said Kunitz, a Penguins newcomer who went all the way with the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks. "It's somebody that comes through in the clutch that maybe isn't expecting to or brings the elevation of their game up."
YONG KIM / Staff photographer
Flyers' Dan Carcillo skates into Penguins' Sergei Gonchar.
Kunitz' observation might have been a cue to fellow Penguins winger Tyler Kennedy last night.
The author of zero goals in 20 career playoff games heading into Game 1 against the Flyers at Mellon Arena, Kennedy's timing was impeccable in producing his first.
With the Penguins leading 1-0 early in the second period, Kennedy burst into the Philadelphia end on a 3-on-1, patiently but relentlessly advanced on the cage and ultimately deked-and-dragged the puck around befuddled defenseman Matt Carle before shoveling it under goaltender Martin Biron.
Penguins superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin found the net as well. But it was Kennedy's goal at 1:39 of the second period that established much-needed breathing room in a game that ended in a 4-1 Penguins' victory.
Penguins defenseman Mark Eaton, who also fits into the "unsung hero" category when it comes to scoring goals, added the third-period exclamation point.
Kennedy had center Jordan Staal and winger Matt Cooke along for the ride on the 3-on-1 into the Flyers end, but with Carle retreating and seemingly playing neither the puck-carrier nor the potential targets for passes, Kennedy took advantage of time and space and made a play.
"Players need to know what they do well," Penguins interim coach Dan Bylsma said. "TK goes to the net well and he shoots it well, better than he passes it.
"He was going to the net and got to the net hard. When you get to five feet away, it's a good spot for Tyler Kennedy."
As for Cooke and Staal, "I think he was ignoring the other two guys on purpose," Bylsma added.
"I would have been pretty [upset] if he had missed it, that's for sure," Staal said. "But he did a great job. Obviously, he felt confident he could get the goal and he buried it."
The Staal-Cooke-Kennedy trio stayed in attack mode throughout, and Bylsma kept turning to his relatively unsung but far from underappreciated third line.
Cooke gave a little blood to the cause after a first-period run-in with Carle, and Kennedy led the Penguins with five shots. Staal was so effective in the face-off circle (11-for-14, 79 percent) and at both ends during his 20:36 on the ice that he was named the game's No. 1 star even though he finished with just one assist.
He was described by Flyers radio analyst Chris Therrien during the second period as "a horse that can skate."
That's about as unexpected as it gets. *
