Now we have a series.
The Pittsburgh Penguins held on to a 3-2 lead, thanks to brilliant play in net from Marc-Andre Fleury in the final ten minutes of the game.
It only took five games, but hockey fans finally saw some normalcy to the Penguins-Flyers series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After combining for 45 goals in the first four games, game five ended in a 3-2 victory for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After crushing the Flyers in game four to keep the series alive, the Penguins returned home to one of the loudest crowd’s in Consol Energy Center’s short history. The crowd was quickly silenced after a shot rang off the post in the opening minutes of the game, but rallied behind their net minder with chants of “Fleury” pulsating the two year old arena.
The Flyers took the lead with a power play goal 11:45 into the opening frame. Matt Carle’s wrist shot went through heavy traffic and beat Marc-Andre Fleury on the far side.
The Penguins answered on a power play goal of their own. James Neal sent a beautiful pass to Kris Letang at the top of the face-off circles, who faked a shot before sliding the puck over to Sullivan for the easy one-timer.
The Penguins appeared to have the momentum until a 5 on 3 power play formed after penalties to Evgeni Malkin and Craig Adams. In the final seconds of the penalty to Malkin, Scott Hartnell roofed a puck in front of Fleury to score his first goal of the playoffs. Daniel Briere’s pass was too hard, forcing Hartnell to corral the puck before sending it past a sprawling Fleury.
The Penguins had a chance to answer with another power play goal of their own 53 seconds into the second period, but the Flyers were able to complete shut down Pittsburgh’s top unit.
The Penguins made up for their squandered chance when Tyler Kennedy’s one-touch pass to Jordan Staal sprung a 2 on 1. Just as he did in game 4, Staal faked the cross-ice pass and fired the puck past Ilya Bryzgalov to tie the game at 2-2. For Staal, it was his league-leading sixth goal and fourth goal in the last two games.
Just three minutes later, the Penguins took the lead. Tyler Kennedy came off the bench late, allowing him to get to the top of the face-off circle uncontested. Matt Cooke came out from behind the Flyers’ net and fed the puck to Kennedy whose slapshot beat Bryzgalov stick side.
The Flyers failed to score on a power play chance late in the second period allowing the Penguins to take a 3-2 lead into the final frame.
After blowing a 3-2 lead in game one, the Penguins went into a defensive shell, creating turnovers in the neutral zone and sending the puck deep.
The Flyers went on the power play after a retaliatory slash by Tyler Kennedy. A power play that was 2 for 3 in the game and 11-20 in the series looked poised to tie the game, but Marc-Andre Fleury wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Philadelphia, winning face-off after face-off, had numerous chances on Fleury and each time he stymied the players in orange and black. Fleury saw shots from Briere, Timmonen and Jagr and stopped them all. His most impressive save, however, was on Scott Hartnell. Fleury leaped on a centering pass from behind the net then sat on the ice as Hartnell tried to finish off the one-timer in front. Out of frustration, Hartnell jammed at Fleury’s pads but the puck refused to cross the red line.
From there the Penguins staved off a last-ditch effort from Philadelphia to force a game six. Pittsburgh will head back to the same arena that taunted them with cheers of “You can’t beat us” in game three.
- Sidney Crosby failed to record a point for the first time in 9 games. He has 45 points in 27 games since his return.
- Evgeni Malkin finished with 4 PIM, 5 giveaways, and 4 shots.
- Matt Carle scored his first goal since December 10th.
Three Stars
- Marc-Andre Fleury
- Jordan Staal
- Matt Carle
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports
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