The Pens started fast, coming out absolutely flying. It looked like the energy from the game in Detroit was really carrying over to this one.
Kris Letang made a nice breakout pass to Tyler Kennedy, who put the biscuit on the tape of Matt Cooke, who then beat Martin Biron for his first goal of the season. It was a fairly weak goal on Biron-- Cooke beat him right past his glove hand on a shot that did not have anything special on it. Either way, it was Cooke's first goal as a Penguin.
The Flyers showed early on that they were up to their old tricks. Braydon Coburn took a few runs, and Scott Hartnell continued to be the idiot that he is.
In the second period, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby had splendin individual efforts only a bit more than two minutes apart.
Malkin got a drop pass from Ruslan Fedotenko, walked around newly acquired Flyers defenseman Matt Carle (who was horrible tonight), and beat Biron easily with a backhander to make it 2-0.
Shortly thereafter, Crosby took the puck at the blueline, split about the entire Flyers team, and toasted Biron with another backhander.
The lesson learned here-- It won't end well for you when you put out a backup caliber goaltender and allow the best two players in the world to face him one on one. We saw this in the playoffs last year, and we saw it again tonight.
Sadly, the Flyers would get back into it.
Jeff Carter got a fluky goal in the crease off a turnover, and then, on a Penguin powerplay, Simon Gagne turned a blocked shot from Alex Goligoski into a breakway on Marc-Andre Fleury, who overplayed the deke, and it was suddenly 3-2. Gagne pulled Philadelphia even with a booming slapshot over Fleury's left shoulder in the following minutes.
Joffrey Lupul redirected a Kimmo Timonen slapper into the net with four seconds left in the second to make it 4-3. You could hear a pin drop at Mellon Arena.
Head Coach Michel Therrien replaced Fleury with Dany Sabourin to start the third period-- a move that would prove genius on the part of the bench boss. Sabourin was brilliant all the way through.
The Flyers shut down the Penguins for most of the third, and thing were looking bleak. That is, until Mike Richards gave the Penguins a gift.
Richards turned the puck over to Malkin down low in his own end, who then passed behind the net to Max Talbot, who gave it to Crosby in front for 87's second of the game to tie it.
In overtime, both teams had a few chances, most notably breakways by Crosby and Richards, but neither goalie could be beaten.
The shootout was something to behold.
Biron made saves on Petr Sykora, Kris Letang, Crosby, Malkin, and Miroslav Sata, and Sabourin stopped Gagne, Richards, Carter, Timonen, and Lupul before the shootout's final round. Sabourin's save on Richards was one for the ages. Dany kept it out with his stick as the puck sat on the goal line.
Goligoski came up for the Penguins, and he won it with a slick move to beat Biron. Hartnell had a chance to tie the game, but the oaf lost the puck twice while coming down, and then he tripped over Sabourin. Then, in his ifinite sportsmanship, he tried to fight Sabourin after he was stopped.
He's a piece of shit, plain and simple.
Notes-
-Flyers are 0-7 in their last seven games here.
-Matt Carle sucks.
-Even with Gagne, Timonen, and Coburn, and the Pens without Hossa, the Pens are still better than Philly
-Sabu starts next game, please. MAF needs a short break, and Sabu is playing well.
-What's so special about Sid-? HONKKKKKKKKK(Goal horn sounds).
-Malkin is sick.
-Staal was solid.
-Stop blowing leads at home. Eventually it will bite you in the ass.
-Gogo redeemed an awful game with that goal.
GO PENS!
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