Flyers start fast, then lose to Penguins
PITTSBURGH - The Flyers scored the game's first two goals, both on the power play, and you could almost hear the home fans moaning Thursday night that the Orange and Black were still in the Penguins' collective heads.
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PITTSBURGH - The Flyers scored the game's first two goals, both on the power play, and you could almost hear the home fans moaning Thursday night that the Orange and Black were still in the Penguins' collective heads.
But a strange thing happened to the Flyers as they aimed for their ninth straight win over their hated archrivals: They found a way to lose.
The Flyers' uncanny dominance of the Penguins came to a halt, 4-3, before the 400th straight sellout crowd at the electric Consol Energy Center.
Phil Kessel scored a pair of goals for the Penguins, including a tap-in on a two-on-one with Carl Hagelin that gave Pittsburgh a 4-2 lead with 13 minutes, 40 seconds left.
With 3:25 remaining, Claude Giroux cut the deficit to 4-3 with the Flyers' third power-play goal of the game - their highest number this season.
The Flyers had been 11-1-1 at the Consol Energy Center since it opened in 2010-11, but they were victimized by sloppy defensive play, and they gave the Penguins a slew of odd-man rushes.
Flyers goalie Steve Mason received little support. Pittsburgh outshot the Flyers, 45-32 - 36-21 over the final two periods.
"It's a lot of shots. We need to be better defensively," said Giroux, who played a season-high 24:26. "I think that starts with our forecheck. When we don't get our forecheck going, that's when they get the odd-man rushes."
With Mason pulled, the Flyers had two golden chances from in close in the frantic closing seconds. But Brayden Schenn and Shayne Gostisbehere couldn't control a bouncing puck with goalie Marc-Andre Fleury out of position and a wide-open net starting at them.
"It was just so many bodies in front and I couldn't see the puck until the last second," Schenn said. "It kind of handcuffed me and spinned off me, and it spun to Gostisbehere. It was there, but I just wasn't able to get a handle on it"
The Penguins overcame a 2-0 deficit and owned the second period, during which they scored a pair of power-play goals against a Flyers penalty-killing unit that missed injured center Sean Couturier.
A spectacular tic-tac-toe passing play resulted in the Penguins' second power-play goal of the night, this one by Kessel, that gave Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead with 5:54 to go in the second.
The Penguins had tied it when Sidney Crosby scored from a bad angle, deep in the left circle. Crosby, who has 32 goals in 53 career games against the Flyers, sent a pinpoint shot that beat Mason to the short side with 12:31 remaining in the second.
A little less than six minutes before Crosby's goal, Pittsburgh cut it to 2-1 when defenseman Trevor Daley netted a power-play goal, firing a left-circle shot past Mason, who was screened by 6-foot-4, 212-pound Eric Fehr.
The goal was scored after a slashing penalty to Ryan White.
"I had a tough one there in the first," White said. "It gave them a chance to get back in the game."
Rebounding from Tuesday's last-second loss to lowly Toronto, the Flyers got as many power-play goals in the first period (two) as they did in their previous six games combined.
First-period power-play goals by Schenn and Jake Voracek gave the Flyers an early 2-0 cushion.
Center Sam Gagner, recalled from the Phantoms earlier in the day, drew an interference penalty on Ian Cole, and Schenn cashed in with 9:43 left in the first, scoring on a rebound after a point drive by Gostisbehere.
Less than six minutes later, Voracek scored from the right hash mark after taking a feed from Giroux, firing a shot that hit the left post and caromed into the net. Gostisbehere, who leads NHL rookie defensemen with 19 points, collected his second assist of the night.
Voracek, who has 18 points in his last 16 games, recorded his first power-play goal of the season.
But the Flyers, now five points of a playoff spot, sat back and allowed the Penguins to dominate most of the final two periods.
"They had a lot of quality looks tonight," Mason said. "I think we got away from our defensive-zone play that we had been successful with in the last little while. In the last two games, it hasn't been as clean and it's cost us."