Malkin, Crosby Lift Penguins to Win Over Flyers

(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

When the Flyers and Penguins meet, you can always expect plenty of fireworks. There were a lot of them at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday as the teams combined for nine goals.

Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby accounted for four of them, with Malkin's second serving as the game-winner as the Penguins held off the Flyers for a 5-4 win on Saturday night.

The Flyers got off to a much better start, controlling the early portion of play in the first period. At 9:48, they were finally able to solve Marc-Andre Fleury and end a drought of seven straight games allowing the first goal.

A point shot by Jake Voracek made its way through and beat Fleury to put the Flyers on the board.

Just over three minutes later, the Flyers good neutral-zone play and forechecking helped them get another goal. Fleury was caught out of position and that allowed Brayden Schenn to corral a loose puck in the slot and feed a wide open Wayne Simmonds with a yawning net. He scored for his sixth goal of the season.

The Flyers appeared to have finally solved their problem with slow starts, but 55 seconds changed all that. It was Penguins captain Crosby who led the comeback trail.

Crosby scored at 15:44 from a sharp angle with a perfect shot short-side over Steve Mason to put the Penguins on the board. A poor defensive shift by the Flyers followed, putting them down a man as Ivan Provorov took a hooking penalty. Crosby scored on the power play off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel to tie the game just 43 seconds later.

It took just 12 seconds after that for the Penguins to again capitalize on poor defensive play from the Flyers. A shot from Tom Kuhnhackl was stopped by Mason, but the rebound went behind the net to Matt Cullen, who was able to surprise Mason with a wraparound goal to put Pittsburgh ahead with their third goal in 55 seconds, leaving Wells Fargo Center in a state of shock.

The first period also featured a scary moment for the Flyers, who saw Claude Giroux leave the ice with a leg injury after a hit from Hornqvist. Giroux was not on the bench when the Flyers opened the scoring, returned for one shift, then left the bench again as the Flyers scored to make it 2-0. Giroux did return immediately after for the remainder of the period.

Michal Neuvirth replaced Steve Mason after the first period. Mason stopped 10 of 13 shots in the period.

The Flyers again played with intensity to open the period, but were burned by a turnover that put them in a two-goal hole again. A failed clearing attempt by Sean Couturier left the Penguins with numbers. Another quick passing play set up Malkin for the easy goal to make it 4-2 Pittsburgh.

But just as they did on Tuesday and Thursday, the Flyers found another rally.

It started at 13:16 with the Flyers on the power play. Two tremendous keeps by Radko Gudas at the Pittsburgh blue line kept play alive and that allowed Simmonds to get the puck and set up a wide open Giroux, who fired a shot past Fleury for his first goal of the season to cut the lead to one.

Just over two minutes later, a great stretch pass from Brandon Manning sent Voracek roaring in on a breakaway. He was disrupted by Brian Dumoulin on his attempt and awarded a penalty shot. On the penalty shot, Voracek used an excellent deke to undress Fleury and score to tie the game.

The Flyers outshot the Penguins, 14-5, in the second period as they rallied back to even the score.

In the third, the Flyers controlled the play again, but failed to strike on Fleury early.

Midway through the period, the Penguins took advantage of a lucky bounce. A shot by Olli Maatta was blocked and hit Manning's skate, bouncing straight to the tape of Malkin for an easy goal. 

That lead held up as the Flyers peppered the Penguins goal with 42 shots on the night, including 14 in the third, but could not find the equalizer.

The Flyers close out a stretch of five games in seven days by hitting the road to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Jake Voracek (4) (Brandon Manning, Radko Gudas) 9:48
• PHI Wayne Simmonds (6) (Brayden Schenn, Shayne Gostisbehere) 13:02
• PIT Sidney Crosby (3) (Patric Hornqvist, Scott Wilson) 15:44
• PIT Crosby (4) PP (Hornqvist, Phil Kessel) 16:27
• PIT Matt Cullen (2) (Tom Kuhnhackl) 16:39

2nd Period

• PIT Evgeni Malkin (4) (Kessel, Chris Kunitz) 9:38
• PHI Claude Giroux (1) PP (Simmonds, Gudas) 13:16
• PHI Voracek (5) PS (Unassisted) 15:28

3rd Period

• PIT Malkin (5) (Olli Maatta) 8:33

Game Statistics