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Pittsburgh Penguins' Jordan Staal, left, and Tyler Kennedy celebrate after Staal scored in the second period of Game 4 in a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday. (AP photo / April 19, 2012) |
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sidney Crosby, at last, found a way to silence the Flyers fans that love to hate him from warmups to the final horn.
How?
Crosby and the Penguins dished out the kind of punishment they can only hope swings the series back their way.
Pushed to the brink of a sweep, Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal pushed back with a vengeance, helping Pittsburgh score nine goals in the first two periods of a 10-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night in their opening-round playoff series.
"We've given ourselves a chance to get back to Pittsburgh," Crosby said. "And that's all we wanted out of this game."
Staal had a hat trick, Malkin scored his first two goals of the series and Crosby added one to help the Penguins cut the series deficit to 3-1. Game 5 is Friday in Pittsburgh.
Marc-Andre Fleury settled down after a shaky first period and had his best game of the series, easily outplaying counterpart Ilya Bryzgalov.
The Flyers led 3-2 when the Penguins reeled off eight straight goals to win the most lopsided game of the series.
"I just want to keep this playoff going," Staal said. "And it was a big game from a lot of guys in the room tonight."
Claude Giroux, Kimmo Timonen and Jakub Voracek all scored for the Flyers, who blew their chance at a stunning sweep of the 108-point Penguins. Bryzgalov, shaky all series, was at his worst in Game 4. He was yanked for Sergei Bobrovsky after allowing his fifth goal of the game.
"We're going to find out what kind of team we are, how we are built," Flyers forward Jaromir Jagr said. "If we are the team like we think we are, we're going to have to respond the next game."
After the team brawled to 158 penalty minutes in Game 3, the nastiness in the series spilled off the ice when Crosby said he didn't like any of the Flyers. So, the Flyers whipped up orange T-shirts for the game that read, "Guess What? We Don't Like YOU Either!"
The tabloid Daily News photoshopped Crosby's head on a lion with the headline, "The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney." One Philadelphia restaurant stuck a sign in its window that read: Crosby: (n). a) a baby penguin. b) slang term for extremely weak.
It was Pittsburgh's captain that got to savor the moment in Philadelphia, though.
"It's not the first time I've seen something like that," Crosby said. "Probably not surprised it was here that it came out."
The Penguins were the first team to score at least 10 goals in a playoff game since the Los Angeles Kings scored 12 against the Calgary Flames on April 10, 1990, according to STATS LLC.
There's little chance of a goalie controversy in Philadelphia. After earning huge cheers for stopping his first shot, Bobrovsky was worse than Bryzgalov, allowing four goals the rest of the second period.
"At that point, Bryz needed to come out," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "Generally speaking, we all need to be better at what we do. But he needed to come out of that situation. So, I changed it up, tried to shake the tree a little bit."
Fleury made it stand the rest of the way and started to make up for a miserable first three games that saw him allow 17 goals.
How?
Crosby and the Penguins dished out the kind of punishment they can only hope swings the series back their way.
Pushed to the brink of a sweep, Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal pushed back with a vengeance, helping Pittsburgh score nine goals in the first two periods of a 10-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night in their opening-round playoff series.
"We've given ourselves a chance to get back to Pittsburgh," Crosby said. "And that's all we wanted out of this game."
Staal had a hat trick, Malkin scored his first two goals of the series and Crosby added one to help the Penguins cut the series deficit to 3-1. Game 5 is Friday in Pittsburgh.
Marc-Andre Fleury settled down after a shaky first period and had his best game of the series, easily outplaying counterpart Ilya Bryzgalov.
The Flyers led 3-2 when the Penguins reeled off eight straight goals to win the most lopsided game of the series.
"I just want to keep this playoff going," Staal said. "And it was a big game from a lot of guys in the room tonight."
Claude Giroux, Kimmo Timonen and Jakub Voracek all scored for the Flyers, who blew their chance at a stunning sweep of the 108-point Penguins. Bryzgalov, shaky all series, was at his worst in Game 4. He was yanked for Sergei Bobrovsky after allowing his fifth goal of the game.
"We're going to find out what kind of team we are, how we are built," Flyers forward Jaromir Jagr said. "If we are the team like we think we are, we're going to have to respond the next game."
After the team brawled to 158 penalty minutes in Game 3, the nastiness in the series spilled off the ice when Crosby said he didn't like any of the Flyers. So, the Flyers whipped up orange T-shirts for the game that read, "Guess What? We Don't Like YOU Either!"
The tabloid Daily News photoshopped Crosby's head on a lion with the headline, "The Cowardly Penguin: Time to Finish Off Sniveling Sidney." One Philadelphia restaurant stuck a sign in its window that read: Crosby: (n). a) a baby penguin. b) slang term for extremely weak.
It was Pittsburgh's captain that got to savor the moment in Philadelphia, though.
"It's not the first time I've seen something like that," Crosby said. "Probably not surprised it was here that it came out."
The Penguins were the first team to score at least 10 goals in a playoff game since the Los Angeles Kings scored 12 against the Calgary Flames on April 10, 1990, according to STATS LLC.
There's little chance of a goalie controversy in Philadelphia. After earning huge cheers for stopping his first shot, Bobrovsky was worse than Bryzgalov, allowing four goals the rest of the second period.
"At that point, Bryz needed to come out," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "Generally speaking, we all need to be better at what we do. But he needed to come out of that situation. So, I changed it up, tried to shake the tree a little bit."
Fleury made it stand the rest of the way and started to make up for a miserable first three games that saw him allow 17 goals.
