PITTSBURGH – The Philadelphia Flyers have never won a series in which they trailed three games to one, coming up on the short end 13 times.
Thanks to a pristine performance in game five against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they’ll get a legitimate chance to see if the 14th time really is the charm.
Backed into the same situation that got them eliminated in last spring’s Eastern Conference final, the Flyers responded with their collective “A” game, gutting out a 3-0 whitewash over the Penguins, who could’ve clinched a spot in the second round with a win Thursday night at Mellon Arena.
Instead the first-round cross-state series will hop back to Philadelphia for Saturday afternoon’s game six. While the Flyers will continue to fight their own franchise’s history, so will the Penguins in a different way: the 1975 New York Islanders rallied back from an even-deeper three-games-to-none hole to beat Pittsburgh, the second and most recent time that’s happened in NHL history.
The Penguins have more pressing concerns than the ghosts of the past, though. After barely hanging on to win game four 3-1 in Philadelphia Tuesday, Pittsburgh turned in two lackluster periods following a strong first frame Thursday, allowing their rivals to keep hope alive in the wake of goalie Martin Biron’s 28-save showing.
Aaron Asham scored in the second period after the Flyers survived a subpar opening stanza, then Claude Giroux and Mike Knuble added slam-dunk goals in the third to frustrate the Penguins and their white-clad sellout crowd.
Mike Richards keyed the Flyers’ early push, tossing a loose puck under Marc-Andre Fleury but a few inches wide of the goal during his first shift of the contest. Philadelphia actually kept the Penguins hemmed in their own end for much of the opening five minutes, but the level of play steadily tilted the other direction as the period waned.
Centered around a power play generated by Sidney Crosby’s dogged pursuit of the puck, Pittsburgh pushed the pedal to the floor in outshooting the visitors 15 to five in the opening 20 minutes. Only Biron’s outstanding goaltending kept zeroes on the overhanging scoreboard at the first intermission.
Despite the great chances created by the star forwards on both sides, the Flyers’ fourth line conjured the first goal at 6:38 of the second. Skating in transition after a poor Bill Guerin drop pass, Philadelphia’s Daniel Carcillo gained the Penguins blue line and guided the puck back to Asham, who hammered a perfect 40-footer into the upper right corner over Fleury’s glove hand.
About five minutes later, the Penguins appeared to tie it on what would’ve been Evgeni Malkin’s fifth of the series, but a video review properly disallowed it after it was conclusively shown the Art Ross Trophy winner directed the big rebound into the goal with a kicking motion.
Fleury, maintaining the sharpness that helped his team steal game Four, turned Scott Hartnell away with his right pad on a bang-bang play in the low slot early in the third. Undeterred, the Flyers maintained offensive-zone pressure that resulted in Giroux’s right-place, right-time goal at 3:25.
As Pittsburgh pressed to get back within reach, Miroslav Satan, placed into the lineup by coach Dan Bylsma in the place of the ineffective and possibly injured Petr Sykora, earned the home side’s best scoring opportunities of the third period. However, the Slovakian couldn’t bury a pair of sweet set-ups, one between the circles facilitated by linemate Malkin and another on the doorstep following a fluky bounce off the end boards.
Knuble made those misses hurt even more at 13:12, when he capped off a three-on-one Philadelphia rush by pounding a Richards rebound into the open right side of the goal from the high slot. Late penalties taken by defenseman Mark Eaton and Crosby extinguished any possible rally and exemplified the Penguins’ evening of futility.
Game six is slated for a 3 p.m. start from the Wachovia Center in south Philadelphia. If the Flyers pick up a second home win in the series, the seventh game will be Monday night at Pittsburgh’s “Igloo.”
Contact matt.gajtka@prohockeynews.com
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