Philadelphia Flyers at Pittsburgh Penguins Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 2 Afterthoughts

Image courtesy of AP

They did it again.

Led by Claude Giroux and rookie Sean Couturier, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 8-5 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals to take a 2-0 series lead.

After the Penguins repeated Wednesday’s start, going up 2-0 less than 10 minutes into the opening period, the fans in Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center were ecstatic. Surely they couldn’t repeat their opening game gaffe… or could they?

The Flyers came back once more, winning this offense-heavy game. Coming back from deficits of 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4, there was nothing the Penguins could do to keep the Flyers down. Coach Peter Laviolette called a timeout after going down 2-0 and, after Max Talbot scored a shorthanded goal three minutes later, the Penguins scored again 17.2 seconds before the end of the period, angering the Flyers coach even more. He must’ve given a heck of an intermission speech because the Flyers outscored Pittsburgh 7-2 the rest of the way.

“When you’re able to come back in a game like that again, I think it speaks volumes about the character in the room, not only from the veteran players but the younger players as well,” said Laviolette.

Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov referred to his team’s “never give up” attitude, describing the team’s mentality when trailing in a game.

“You have two choices,” he remarked. “Just quit and say ‘ok, we’re down’ or fight to the end [because you] never know what’s going to happen.”

Couturier recorded the first hat trick of his young career, tying the game at 4 with 2.8 seconds left in the second period, tying it at 5 just 17 seconds after Tyler Kennedy gave the Pens a lead and giving his team some breathing room down the stretch, making it a 7-5 game with 1:49 to go.

“It feels great helping the team win offensively,” said Couturier, but he didn’t want to take full credit. “The whole team had a great effort in the second and third period. That’s what’s important.”

Meanwhile, Claude Giroux had the first six-point game of his career, recording three assists and scoring three goals, one of them shorthanded. But afterwards, he didn’t get excited.

“We can’t get comfortable because [the Penguins] are the best team in the league… we just got to stay focused,” he said.

It was the first time two players recorded hat tricks in the same game since Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom did it for the LA Kings in a 12-4 win over the Flames in 1990.

It was only fitting that, minus Giroux and Couturier, former Penguins Max Talbot and Jaromir Jagr scored the team’s two other goals. Jagr scored the go-ahead goal with 10:47 in the game and, with it, the Flyers were playing with a lead for the first time in the series.

The game’s 8-5 score might scream “bad goaltending” but, even though there were many goals given up, the goaltending was an integral part of tonight’s Flyers victory. Bryzgalov saved just 23 of 28 shots, but he had a handful of highlight saves, the most spectacular being the glove save on Kris Letang in the middle of the second period.

“That was the save of the year,” Jagr assessed. “He kept us in the game.”

A small recap of the Flyers night: 8 goals, two of them shorthanded… two hat tricks… coming back not once, not twice, but three times… and beating Pittsburgh in their new arena for the seventh time in eight games. I’d say the team should be pretty happy with their performance.

Much of the hockey world didn’t think the Penguins would take Wednesday’s loss lightly and they expected the team to come back strong and tie up the series heading into Philly. The Flyers knew they did their job winning Wednesday. Had they lost tonight, it wouldn’t have killed their spirits. But they won and now the Penguins are facing a seemingly impossible task, down 2-0 against the Flyers, who have never blown a 2-0 series lead in their team’s history.

I don’t know if Philadelphia can win the Cup by going down in each game and that’s a problem that needs to be solved, but right now it’s got the team’s and the city’s adrenaline high. The series will most likely come back to Pittsburgh, but the Flyers have a golden opportunity to shut down a Stanley Cup favorite’s run at the trophy. It’s just up to them to capitalize.