PHILADELPHIA, Pa – The Philadelphia Flyers lost home ice advantage on the last game of the regular season. Now, the Pittsburgh Penguins are showing why it might not matter in this series if the Flyers can’t win a game on the road. There is a saying that the series doesn’t change until someone loses a home game. Well, the series has officially changed as the Pittsburgh Penguins won Game 4 in Philadelphia 3-1 and are once again on the verge of bouncing the Flyers out of the playoffs in five games for the second straight season.
For the first time in the series, the Flyers outshot the Penguins and had more power play opportunities in the same game. If the Penguins want to thank someone for the victory they can thank their goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The Flyers outshot the Penguins 46-26 for the game and had eight power plays to Pittsburgh’s five.
Neither team scored in the first period, but both teams put plenty of rubber on the net combining for 25 shots on goal, 13 for the Penguins. One problem the Flyers have had over the past month is allowing the first shot on goal. In Game 3 the Flyers not only scored the first goal of the game, but won the game as well. Pittsburgh scored first in Games 1 and 2 and won both games. It shouldn’t come as a surprise than the Penguins scored first and won the game.
Public enemy number one on the Penguins is Sidney Crosby, so you can imagine the reaction in the building when Crosby scored while sliding into the Flyers net for a 1-0 lead. Just as a Penguins penalty had ended, Chris Kunitz stole the puck at the his own blueline and skated into the Flyers zone along the left wing boards. He saw Crosby head down the middle of the ice towards the Flyers net.
Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen slide on his stomach to try and prevent Kunitz’s pass over to Crosby, but the puck somehow got by Timonen and over to Crosby who was pulled down to the ice from Simon Gagne. As he was falling the puck hit Crosby’s stick, hit Crosby and slide into the net with him. The play was reviewed but was ruled a goal at 3:19 of the second period.
The rest of the night was the Marc-Andre Fleury show. He made great save after great save and kept the Penguins from not only losing the game, but from being blown out. The Flyers kept getting good shots, but very rarely did the Flyers try and pick the corners making Fleury’s job easier.
The Penguins took advantage of the Flyers poor coverage in their own zone when Matt Cooke also skated down the left wing and saw Tyler Kennedy high in the slot area. Kennedy deked left while the Flyers defenders went right, shot backhanded and put the puck past Marty Biron for a 2-0 lead at 7:41.
The Penguins came out in the third period and held on for dear life as the Flyers outshot Pitt 19-7. Eventually Dan Carcillo scored for the Flyers as Mike Richards did some hard work behind the Penguins net and tried to stuff the puck past Fleury. The rebound came out to Carcillo in the slot who one-timed a shot past Fleury to get the Flyers to within one at the 11:44 mark.
Unfortunately for the Flyers that is where the good news ended as Maxime Talbot put the Flyers out of their misery with 52 seconds left to go in the game on an empty net goal.
Game 5 is on Thursday night in Pittsburgh. If there is a Game 6 it will be on Saturday night in Philadelphia.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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