Kapanen, Penguins Down Flyers with Strong 2nd Period

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

For another game, the Flyers were facing an opponent missing their best player. Sidney Crosby was on the COVID list, meaning he would be out for Tuesday's game. It didn't matter for the Penguins.

The Penguins took control in the second period and erased a Flyers third-period goal in short order on their way to a 5-2 result over the Flyers on Tuesday night.

The Flyers had a pair of great opportunities early in the period with two power plays, but failed to take advantage. The rest of the first period featured a lot of neutral-zone tie-ups and limited chances in tight space. Neither team was able to score in the opening 20 minutes.

Shots were 13-5 Flyers at the end of the first.

Early in the second, the Flyers were able to find the net. Sean Couturier made a play in the neutral zone to advance the puck to Joel Farabee. The two then executed a perfect give-and-go, with Farabee finishing into an open net to make it 1-0.

Just 1:07 later, the Penguins tied it up on a Flyers miscue. Shayne Gostisbehere turned the puck over with a cross-ice pass at the blue line that sent Kasperi Kapanen the other way on a breakaway. Kapanen beat Carter Hart through the five-hole to make it 1-1.

The Penguins were back on the power play for the second time in the game just under five minutes later, and they capitalized again as Kapanen was on the receiving end of a pretty passing play to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead.

Just over two minutes after that, the Penguins struck again. Two Penguins were left alone behind the defense and that allowed Bryan Rust to pick up a rebound to make it 3-1 Penguins lead.

The Flyers had a power play late in the period with a chance to cut into the lead and couldn't score. They also got a power play in the closing seconds of the period that carried into the third. 

Through two periods, the Flyers had a 26-19 lead in shots.

The Flyers failed to score on the remaining portion of that power play and another one shortly after, bringing them to 0-for-5 on the night. Finally, 11 minutes into the period, they found a way to get back into the game.

Couturier won a race in the corner and set up a chance for Travis Sanheim. A bouncing puck near the net off Tristan Jarry sat in the right spot for Farabee to knock it home for his second goal of the game.

But once again, just 1:08 after the Flyers cut the lead to one, the Penguins restored it to two. The Penguins got numbers off a failed pinch by the Flyers, and ultimately cashed in as former Flyer Mark Friedman made the play to help set up Cody Ceci to make it a 4-2 game with 7:52 to play.

In the final minutes, the Penguins iced the game as Hart tried to get to the bench, with Mike Matheson finding the open net with 3:55 remaining. 

Jarry made 40 saves in the win. Hart made 22 saves in the loss.

The Flyers and Penguins meet again on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• No Scoring

2nd Period

• PHI Joel Farabee (9) (Sean Couturier) 2:32
• PIT Kasperi Kapanen (4) (Unassisted) 3:39
• PIT Kapanen (5) PP (Jake Guentzel, Bryan Rust) 8:41
• PIT Rust (7) (Kris Letang, Evgeni Malkin) 10:45

3rd Period

• PHI Farabee (10) (James van Riemsdyk, Travis Sanheim) 11:00
• PIT Cody Ceci (2) (Jared McCann, Mark Friedman) 12:08
• PIT Mike Matheson (2) (Unassisted) 16:06

Game Statistics