The Pittsburgh Penguins have now won 10 straight games as they steamrolled the shorthanded Philadelphia Flyers 6-2. The Flyers never stood a chance with their lineup missing several key players, but the Penguins have been scorching hot as well. Their top line of Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, and Bryan Rust played nightmarishly well yet again, combining for 4 goals and 7 points.
A huge divisional game with their cross-state rival, who were on a nine-game winning streak, got that much more difficult with the absences of Claude Giroux, Sean Couturier, Travis Konecny, Ryan Ellis, Ivan Provorov, and Travis Sanheim among others. With a lineup that included several AHL players and mish-mashed line combinations, an early start was paramount for success if they had any chance of victory.
FIRST PERIOD
The Flyers were given an early opportunity to take the lead with a power play, but their 27th-ranked unit was going up against the league’s best penalty killing unit. As expected, the Penguins killed it off with ease as the Flyers weren’t able to muster up any opportunities, let alone set up. The Flyers had a few opportunities after the power play but nothing would prepare them for the onslaught that followed.
The Penguins opened the floodgates with 3 goals in the latter half of the first period, 2 of them courtesy of Bryan Rust. On a power play given to them thanks to a Morgan Frost holding the stick penalty, the Penguins wasted very little time. After Cam York failed to clear a loose puck in the end boards, Sidney Crosby quickly fed the puck to Kris Letang who looked like he was going to shoot but kept his head up and found Rust open near the goal mouth for an open net.
2 minutes later on a 4 on 4, thanks to the referees blowing the whistle too soon on a would-be game tying goal by Joel Farabee, the Penguins took no time in doubling the lead. With the Penguins entering the zone, Evan Rodrigues’ shot was blocked by Yegor Zamula, but with both players tied up and no one else seemingly in sight, Rodrigues pushed the loose puck to Rust who was all alone in the slot, and he made no mistake by firing the puck through the five-hole of Carter Hart.
On the same 4 on 4 situation, the Penguins came racing back into the Flyers’ zone and set up admirably to make it 3-0. Letang, who was everywhere that period, had plenty of time behind the net to set the puck up to Jake Guentzel on the opposite side of the net. He fumbled with the shot initially but kept jamming away and even though Hart made the save, his glove was in the net and after review was deemed a good goal.
SECOND PERIOD
The second period couldn’t have gone any worse than the first period so the Flyers had that going for them, but all in all it was a better played 20 minutes. They lost the plot in the last 5 minutes of the period but Hart was able to bail them out of their mistakes with several chances in and around the slot.
The saving grace was Cam Atkinson’s 14th goal of the season after another abhorrent power play opportunity went to waste. Farabee, who had a terrible power play with several whiffed shots, missing on his pass, and fumbling the puck itself was able to set up Atkinson’s slap shot after a turnover forced by Scott Laughton in his own zone.
He was able to force Guentzel into a turnover at the blue line, and shoveled a clearance that John Marino failed to catch, which allowed the Flyers to cut the deficit to 2 on an odd man rush. Farabee, who smashed his stick in the tunnel after the power play, grabbed a new one and found Atkinson with a nice backhand feed.
THIRD PERIOD
It was a two-goal game heading into the third period, and the next goal, scored by either team, was going to be huge and unfortunately for the Flyers, Evan Rodrigues and the Penguins took a 3 goal lead. Kasperi Kapanen found Rodrigues with a perfect stretch pass, after Max Willman lost the puck trying to undress the defender with a nifty move, who just squeaked in onside past Kevin Connauton. He danced around Hart and trickled it past his outstretched skate.
The Flyers defense got caught again a few minutes later, this time Rasmus Ristolainen, as Guentzel lifted a puck over Hart’s glove to give the Penguins a 4 goal lead. Farabee found Atkinson for a similar looking play to his goal earlier but this time Tristan Jarry made the stop. On the ensuing carom, the Penguins quickly countered as Rust found Crosby at centre ice, who then laid a perfect feed to Guentzel through the defensemen and he made no mistake.
The Flyers were awarded another power play shortly after Guentzel’s goal but the way this game was going, it was going to be more of a disadvantage than a man advantage and that came to fruition after several gaffes by Flyers veterans. Kevin Hayes, for whatever reason, held onto the puck for too long and got double teamed before giving it up to Marino who then jumpstarted the play to a streaking Brian Boyle.
Boyle came down the wing and fired a snapshot past Hart, who went down too soon. As the power play ended, Oskar Lindblom gave the Flyers something to cheer about as he dragged the puck around Chad Ruhwedel’s stick and past Jarry to cut the deficit to 4.
The Flyers hung around long enough with the game in the balance, down 3-1. However, the Penguins scored in bunches tonight with their first 3 goals coming in a span of 4 minutes in the first period and then their next batch of 3 goals coming in 3:01 in the third to completely flatten the Flyers chances.
For the Flyers, it was an ugly game and everyone looked pretty bad, but they did get goals from Cam Atkinson and Oskar Lindblom, which continues their trend of good hockey under Mike Yeo. Carter Hart was left out to dry several times tonight as he let in 6 goals on 32 shots. Cam York played a team high 22:21 and Yegor Zamula looked good in his 19:46.
The Penguins got more results from their top line of Crosby-Guentzel-Rust as they combined for 4 goals and 3 assists. They also received goals from Evan Rodrigues and Brian Boyle, while Kris Letang recorded 3 assists. Tristan Jarry didn’t need to be spectacular tonight as he only faced 20 shots as the Penguins have now won 10 consecutive games.
UP NEXT…
For the Flyers, their next game is on Saturday against the San Jose Sharks at Wells Fargo Center at 7:00pm ET.
