Pens win game 3-2 and series is now 3-2

The Penguins took one more step in their quest to make an historical playoff comeback by defeating the Flyers 3-2 last night at the Consol Energy Center.  It was the first game since the series opener that resembled what we have come to know as playoff hockey.  It is important to note that perhaps the biggest news for Pittsburgh was the heroic play of Marc Andre Fleury, who, according to Scott Fartsmell is the reason the Penguins won this game.  It is hard to argue, especially given his big time effort on a penalty kill that started at 7:37 of period 3, and resulted in Fleury making 7 saves on that PK.  Many of those chances were right on the doorstep.  If Fleury can stay hot, he is more than capable of putting this team on his back, and carrying them to two more victories in this series.  Another great story is Jordan Staal.  Do you think a guy with the character of Jordan Staal was bothered by losing track of Voracek in game one, leading to the game winner in OT?  Well, how about this?  Jordan Staal leads the entire NHL in playoff goals with 6, he is second in points with 9, and first in even strength points with 8.  In a goal ridden series, he is also a plus 4, tied for the lead on the Penguins.  Tonight, he scored the game tying goal, and set up the game winner by Tyler Kennedy.  Can you say series MVP?
What about line mate Tyler Kennedy?  He is a guy that many, including myself felt was a mistake to resign at 2M per year, and we looked like we were right given a mediocre season posted by number 48.  His game is rather limited, flying around north/south and taking lots of low percentage shots.  But, once again, in the post season, the man some call Little Tiger has been a big part of any success the Penguins are having.  TK has 3 goals, including the game winning goal last night, and 3 assists, while adding some physicality to the Penguins game.  Great job by TK.  The Penguins again dressed 7 defenseemen, and sat Paul Martin and Ben Lovejoy. while dressing Simon Despres and Brian Strait again.  Other than a third period lapse that saw Fleury bail the Penguins out, this defensive alignment is much more solid without Martin.  On another note, neither Crosby or Malkin showed up on the scoresheet, but Crosby was great in the faceoff circle and played tremendous defensive hockey.  Malkin on the other hand was not good last night. First, he completed his 9th straight home playoff game without scoring a goal, but he also took two bad penalties, which given the prowess of the Philadelphia power play could easily have cost Pittsburgh the game.  In addition, Geno seems to be the one guy who continues to ignore the idea of NOT making drop passes at the blue line, and NOT making cross ice passes to open space giving Philadelphia odd man chances.  On a good news/bad news front, the Penguins won a game with neither head of the two headed monster on the scoresheet, which is a rarity.  The bad news part of that, is Geno will be necessary to complete this improbable march of the Penguins, and last night he looked BAD.  Letang had two points, and looked like a dominant offensive force last night.  On to the game summary.

Period One

Started just like Wednesday with the Flyers getting on the board due to a power play goal.  At the 11:45 mark, Matt Carle scored a power play goal off of a Deryk Engelland roughing call to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.  The good news for Pittsburgh is that the team who scores first loses in this series.

Then at the 14:51 mark, Steve Sullivan (2) tied the game when he hammered home a nice pass off of a faked shot from Kris Letang (3).  James Neal (4) also assisted on the play.  It was now 1-1.  Letang who took a feed from Neal did a great job of getting Bryz to commit to what looked like a shot from the point, before dishing to Sully, who beat an out of position Bryzgalov.

Then at 17:35 of the period, on a 5 on 3, Scott Fartsmell beat Fleury on a great passing play in front of the net to restore a 2-1 Flyer lead.


Period Two

At the 6:15 mark, red hot Jordan Staal beat Bryz screaming down the right side on a two on one by freezing the netminder with a look off, then snapping a wicked wrister high into the net.  The goal was Staal's league leading 6th of the playoffs, assisted by Kennedy (3) and Letang (4).  The  score was tied 2-2.

At 9:53 Tyler Kennedy(3)  beat Bryzagalov through a screen, on what would turn out to be the game winning goal giving the Penguins a 3-2 lead.  He was assisted by Staal (3) and Matt Cooke (3). 

Period Three

The Pens managed to hang on and win, while retreating into a bit of a shell.  Fleury, as noted was stellar, particularly in a 7 save PK effort near the middle part of the period.

The series resumes with the Penguins facing elimination again tomorrow at noon in Philadelphia;  Some postives for Pittsburgh include the fact that they are outscoring the Flyers 15-9 at even strength.  Also, despite a 60% Flyer Power Play, the Penguins PK killed the last three penalties and showed some signs of getting its legs, largely due to the improved play of Fleury.  The pressure is starting to mount on Philadelphia as well.  Yet, the Flyers still have some margin for error, and the Penguins have none.  Fleury is now 6-4 when facing elimination, and will have to run that record to 8-4 for Pittsburgh to get to the second round.  Not great odds still, yet, I would not bet against it either!  Tomorrow will be a VERY interesting afternoon with TWO desperate teams fighting it out.  There is no roller coaster ride in sports like the NHL playoffs.  LETS GO PENS!!