The Philadelphia Flyers dropped a close one against their cross-state rivals as their comeback effort fell short in a 7-3 result against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It was a first period to forget as the Penguins jumped to a 4-1 lead with Sidney Crosby tallying 3 assists. Egor Zamula’s tally tied the game at 1, however the red-hot first line for Pittsburgh took full control of the period, having their hand in all 4 goals.
Noah Cates and Sean Couturier then cut the deficit to 1 before Michael Bunting’s second of the game quelled their momentum in the final minute of the period. Samuel Ersson was pulled ahead of the third period as he allowed 5 goals on 14 shots and Aleksei Kolosov allowed 1 goal on 7 shots he faced in the third.
Crosby then iced it with an empty-netter before Blake Lizotte scored a late power play goal, while Tristan Jarry earned his 8th victory of the season with 22 saves on the ledger.
In their final game before the Christmas break, the Flyers visited their cross-state rivals in the Penguins for the first time this season and for the first since February of the 2023-24 campaign.
Coming off the heels of their 7th comeback victory in the third period or later, the Flyers welcomed back Sean Couturier, who missed Saturday’s game due to the birth of his son, Nash. Olle Lycksell was sent to AHL Lehigh Valley to open a lineup spot for Couturier, while Samuel Ersson returned in goal.
As for the Penguins, they entered tonight’s game with a near-identical record as the Flyers with the sole exception being an extra overtime loss. They were 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and had their modest 2-game winning streak snapped their last time out at the hands of the New Jersey Devils.
The ageless wonder, Sidney Crosby, continued to pace the club with 26 assists and 35 points in 35 games, Evgeni Malkin followed with 27 points, and Rickard Rakell rounded out the top-3 with a team-high 15 goals as well as 26 points.
Tristan Jarry earned the start in goal as he looked to improve on his 7-5-2 record, 3.51 GAA, and a .885 SV%.
FIRST PERIOD
It only took the home team just 89 seconds to get the first goal of the game after Bryan Rust ripped a slap-shot past Ersson for his 15th of the season. Crosby jumpstarted the play after he wrapped it around the boards to Rust on the other side, Rust then found Crosby again who set him back up for the blast that beat Ersson cleanly.
The Flyers tied things up after Egor Zamula painted the corner on a rip of a shot over Jarry’s glove-hand with 13:43 remaining. Scott Laughton and Ryan Poehling earned the assists with the latter making a great play while absorbing contact to get the pass over to Zamula.
1:02 later the Penguins’ red-hot first line seemingly regained the lead once again after Crosby found Rakell in the slot with a brilliant backhanded pass. However, the Flyers reviewed for a potential offside and won the challenge in mere seconds after Rakell was well offside before Crosby’s pass.
They might’ve lost their goal earlier but they reclaimed it right back after they took advantage of a failed clearance. Rakell retook the team lead in goals with his 16th and finished off a nice passing play from Rust and Erik Karlsson at the 11:53 mark.
The top line then drew a penalty after yet another dangerous offensive zone shift with Cam York getting the gate for a holding minor at the 14:53 mark. The Penguins made easy work of the Flyers’ penalty kill with some more crisp passing that led to a Michael Bunting tally. Malkin set it up after initially receiving a pass from Crosby.
To make matters worse for both player and team, York took his second minor after losing an edge on a turnover. After being benched mid-game last week and then made a healthy scratch, York’s period went from bad to worse real fast.
Similarly to the first power play, the Penguins made easy work as they jumped to a 4-1 lead. After Laughton was stopped on his odd-man rush opportunity, Crosby went the other way on his own chance and while he was stopped, the Penguins reclaimed the puck before Crosby found Philip Tomasino for the easy goal. The assist tied Crosby for the most in franchise history at 1,033 with Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux.
The period mercifully came to an end with the Penguins up 4-1 on the scoreboard and 10-9 on the shot clock.
SECOND PERIOD
The Flyers came out with a lot more jump to start the second period and Noah Cates was rewarded with yet another goal after ripping one low-blocker past Jarry 4:29 into the period. Bobby Brink made yet another great play to set up the goal as Cates has now tallied in four straight games.
With 6:54 remaining, Sean Couturier cut the deficit in half as he fired a shot through Jarry’s five-hole with Kris Letang on his back. The goal was Couturier’s first in 11 games as the Flyers’ second period surge continued with a 10-1 edge in shots as well.
With the Flyers desperately needing a big save from Ersson to keep their momentum going, Bunting reclaimed the Penguins’ 2 -goal lead after he hammered home a slap-shot from the slot low-blocker past an aggressive Ersson with 1:12 remaining.
It wasn’t all Ersson’s fault as the Flyers gravitated towards Malkin in the corner leaving Bunting to his own devices. However, that’s exactly the situation John Tortorella and Ersson have talked about all week, where he needs to come up with that one extra save.
The Flyers outshot the Penguins 13-4 and outscored them 2-1 but that late goal from Bunting was certainly a backbreaker.
THIRD PERIOD
As expected after that fifth goal, John Tortorella pulled Ersson for Aleksei Kolosov. He also told Kolosov to be ready just in case before the second period started.
With the Penguins attempting to preserve their two-goal lead, the third period took a different turn. The Flyers found it a lot more difficult to traverse into the offensive zone as the shots were 6-5 in favour of Pittsburgh with just 4:31 remaining in regulation.
Tortorella pulled Kolosov with 4 minutes left to play but it didn’t take long for the Penguins to jump on the empty net as Crosby iced the game away.
Then with just 18 seconds remaining, Matvei Michkov was called for a hooking minor, which turned into their 7th goal of the game just 6 seconds later off the stick of Blake Lizotte.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will enjoy their holiday break before beginning their annual West Coast road trip on Saturday in Anaheim (4:00pm; NBCSP).
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