Sidney Crosby scored twice, including the game-winner late in regulation after a miscue by Flyers netminder Martin Biron, as Pittsburgh escaped with a 5-4 win over Philadelphia at the Wachovia Center.
Ruslan Fedotenko added two goals and one assist for the Penguins, who have won two consecutive games despite wasting two-goal leads in each, and improved to 2-0-1 under interim head coach Dan Bylsma.
Pascal Dupuis chipped in with three helpers and Marc-Andre Fleury allowed four goals on 27 shots for the win.
Mike Richards had a goal and two assists for the Flyers, who had won five of six coming in. Braydon Coburn, Joffrey Lupul and Mike Knuble also tallied while Biron's costly mistake saddled him with the loss after a 22-save performance.
Crosby was credited with the game-winning goal on a bizarre play with 2:45 left in the contest.
Biron dove between the circles to stop a scoring chance by Dupuis, but inexplicably dropped the puck behind him as he stood up. A Flyers defenseman overskated the puck, but Dupuis was there in the left circle to shove a pass ahead to the Penguins captain for a tip into an open net.
Richards missed a half-open net and a chance to tie with 90 seconds to play, and though Maxime Talbot missed the empty net with under 40 seconds left, the Flyers couldn't get an equalizer as time ran out.
Lupul potted a backhander from the slot with 9:29 left in the first, then Crosby equalized on a wicked shot off the crossbar 21 seconds into the second period.
Malkin's tip of a Petr Sykora deflection of a Sergei Gonchar shot led to a power-play goal and 2-1 Penguins lead at 7:14, then Fedotenko blew a shot home with 7:51 remaining for a 3-1 edge.
Richards brought the Flyers within 3-2 on another short-handed breakaway goal 3:07 into the third period. He set a team record with a goal while a man down for the third consecutive game, and tied Brian Propp and Mark Howe for most short-handed goals by a player in one season with seven.
It was a 3-3 game at the 6:37 mark when Matt Carle dished to Coburn for a blast at the right point which deflected off a Penguin stick and sailed over Fleury's glove, but Fedotenko hit the net again at 9:50 to put Pittsburgh back on top.
A Simon Gagne-to-Richards-to Knuble passing series made it 4-4 with 5:35 to play.
Game Notes
Richards has three goals and five assists in his last two games...Propp accomplished the feat in 1984-85 and Howe in 1985-86...Pittsburgh had not won a road game since a 4-2 decision in Philly on January 13...The Penguins lead the season series, 4-1-0, with one final meeting on March 22 at Mellon Arena...Pittsburgh travels to Washington on Sunday and Philadelphia heads to America's capital on Tuesday.
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2 comments:
Poor Marty. He's going need to start wearing kevlar in Philly.
It was the single worst mistake from playing the puck I've seen since Dominic Roussel used to give 2-3 goals away a year trying to make clearing passes.
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