Flyers beat Penguins, continue Pittsburgh run

PITTSBURGH - You could excuse the Flyers if they consider the Consol Energy Center their favorite NHL arena.

They own the building.

R.J. Umberger, a 32-year-year-old winger who grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, scored his first goal in his second stint with the Flyers, sparking a 5-3 win over the Penguins on Wednesday night.

Since the arena opened in 2010-11, the Flyers are an amazing 10-1-1 in regular-season games here.

Umberger, who also contributed an assist and a first-period fight, snapped a 2-2 tie with 13 minutes left as he converted a pass from Claude Giroux (two assists). Two minutes later, Matt Read took a feed from Sean Couturier (two assists) and beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a backhander to give the Flyers a 4-2 cushion.

"It felt good to finally get the first one," said Umberger, whose team bounced back from Tuesday's 4-0 loss in Chicago. "It was a big moment for our team - the way we responded after the last game. Obviously, nothing was good about that game."

Marcel Goc finished a tic-tac-toe passing play, started by ex-Flyer Steve Downie, to get the Penguins to within 4-3 with 2:57 left. But Couturier - who did a solid defensive job when matched against Evgeni Malkin (minus-3) and Sidney Crosby (minus-2) - iced the win with an empty-net goal.

Earlier in the third period, Ray Emery (2-0-1) robbed Malkin from the doorstep with just under 14 minutes left, keeping the score tied at 2. The play was reviewed because part of the puck appeared to cross the goal line, but the call on the ice stood. No goal.

Emery said the Flyers' success in Pittsburgh has to do with motivation.

"I don't think it's any secret that we have a good rivalry, and with the elite players they have on their team, it's easy for individuals to get up when you're against them," he said. "It's a good measuring stick playing against guys like Malkin and Crosby."

With 11 minutes to go in the second period, the Penguins tied the score at 2 when Paul Martin's point drive deflected off Pascal Dupuis and apparently off the skate of Flyers defenseman Andrew MacDonald, getting past Emery.

The Flyers had taken a 2-1 lead when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, the 29-year-old winger who grew up in Paris, redirected Couturier's pass past Fleury for his first NHL goal with 6:42 remaining in the opening period.

Couturier, who had been in the penalty box moments earlier, streaked down the right side and made a perfect feed from the right circle.

"It was a long shift on the five-on-four," said Bellemare, referring to the penalty kill. "I was at the end of my shift, and I was thinking I should just drive to the net to open it up behind me. I ended up by myself, and Coots threw it to me."

A smiling Bellemare added he was "very tired as it tipped my stick and went in."

Bellemare became the oldest Flyers player to score his first NHL goal since Jiri Dopita, 32, in 2001, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

About four minutes before Bellemare's goal, defenseman Mark Streit's drive from the right point went through a crowd of players and knotted the score at 1.

Until then, the Penguins displayed a shooting gallery at Emery. At one point, they had outshot the Flyers, 9-3, and had built a 1-0 lead on Nick Spaling's left-circle goal just 3:50 in the game.

Yet the Flyers carried a 2-1 lead to the locker room at the first intermission.

Emery was one of the reasons. Making his second start of the season, he robbed Crosby early in the game, and also made key first-period stops on Brandon Sutter and Patric Hornqvist.

The Flyers outshot the Penguins, 17-6, in the second period, but Pittsburgh had the only goal of the session.

But the Flyers, who lost the services of winger Zac Rinaldo to a first-period upper-body injury, outplayed the Penguins in the third period and continued their uncanny success in their fiercest rival's building.