PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins took their collective grudge match outdoors, this time in South Philly. In one of the very rare occasions in the NHL’s Outdoor Series, playoff positions were up for grabs. Coming into the game the Flyers had lost their last two games which did help their cause any. Chasing the Penguins heading into the game did not help any either. That said, Saturday night was more than all right for fighting.
Right Wing Justin Baily (#27) of the Philadelphia Flyers and Defenseman Marcus Pettersson (#28) of the Pittsburgh Penguins fight for position.
Leave it to the Flyers fans favorite arch nemesis Sidney Crosby to get things started in the first period at the 7:59 mark after he took a pass from Kris Letang in the Flyers zone and skated in on goaltender Brian Elliot with a backhand shot glove side that went glove side and into the right corner of the net for a 1-0 Penguins lead. Sean Couturier tied the game at 1-1 at 12:06 when Oskar Lindblom sent a pass from the left wing boards to Couturier in the slot and fired a shot past Matt Murray high in the upper right corner to even things up.
Sadly for the Flyers, Crosby untied the game in the second period when he sent a pass to Justin Schultz who took a shot that went off the back boards and the rebound came back to him. Schultz shot a rocket in the upper right corner to give the Penguins the lead again at 10:01.
When former General Manager Ron Hextall was fired, the merry-go-round of goalies was one of the main reasons for letting him go. Well, goaltending reared its ugly head when the Flyers fans other villain, Evgeni Malkin, put the Penguins up 3-1 took a high shot that Elliot had in his glove, popped out and hit Elliot’s right leg and into the net 6:29 into the third period.
Center Sidney Crosby (#87) of the Pittsburgh Penguins goes in on net against Goalie Brian Elliott (#37) of the Philadelphia Flyers
Things looked bleak for the orange and black until Jakub Voracek took a shot that went off Murray and James Van Riemsdyk slammed home a goal into an open net to close the gap to 3-2. Voracek then came up big for the Flyers with the tying goal from a near impossible angle to tie the game with only 19.7 seconds left in the game.
Heading into Saturday’s game the Flyers have not won an outdoor game. Claude Giroux made sure this time around that would not be the case. In overtime, Giroux skated down the slot all the way down the ice from the red line in on Murray with a defenseman right in front of him put a wrist through Murray’s legs and just barely slide past him for the game winning goal sending almost 70,000 fans and Lincoln Financial Field into a frenzy.
With the win the Flyers closed within seven points of the Penguins for the last wild card spot in the standings. Pittsburgh temporarily moved out of a playoff spot due to the Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 win over the Dallas Stars.
Brian Jennings covers the Philadelphia Flyers for prohockeynews.com and can be found on twitter at @Flyersfan22.
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