FLYERS TOP PENS BEHIND OFFENSIVE OUTBURST

The Philadelphia Flyers clearly benefitted from a return to their home ice.  Jeff Carter and Mike Richards scored quickly in the opening period to stake their team to a 2-0 lead just over five minutes into the game, and the Flyers moribund offense finally came to life as they defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-3 on Sunday.  The victory cut the Penguins lead in the series to 2-1, with game four set for Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

Jeff Carter opened the scoring just 2:59 into the first period on a goal assisted by Joffrey Lupul and Scott Hartnell.  Shortly thereafter with Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal in the penalty box for holding Mike Richards scored on the power play from Mike Knuble and Daniel Briere to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead before late arriving fans had even settled into their seats.  The Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin would cut into the lead with seconds to play in the first period on his third goal of the playoffs with an assist to Ruslan Fedotenko.  The opening twenty minutes of play ended with the Flyers holding a 2-1 advantage.

Pittsburgh pulled even just 13 seconds into the 2^nd period on Rob Scuderi’s goal assisted by Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz.  After that, it was all Philadelphia as Claude Giroux lit the lamp at 4:32 assisted by Daniel Briere and Darroll Powe to give the Flyers the lead once again.  Giroux then assisted on Simon Gagne’s shorthanded goal at 8:58 to give Philly a 4-2 lead heading into the final period.  Jared Ross would score at 3:42 of the final session to make it 5-2 Flyers (assisted by Andrew Alberts and Arron Asham). Pittsburgh’s Malkin would score again at the 8:30 mark, this time on the power play set up by Sergei Gonchar and Sidney Crosby. The Penguins would get no closer, however, and Gagne’s empty net goal in the closing minutes of the game produced the final 6-3 margin.

Philly center Daniel Briere said after the game that his team knew it was crucial they not go down 3-0 in the series:

"It was a huge game. We didn't want to go down 3-0 because that's a tough task. We have to enjoy it for a few minutes here."

Briere continued to stress the importance of coming out aggressively against the Penguins:

"You look at Game 1, and I thought we sat back too much and let them dictate the pace. We can't sit back and let them dictate because guys like Crosby and Malkin are going to hurt you."

In the losing locker room, Pittsburgh’s Crosby tried to emphasize the positive:

"We knew they would come out charging in the first period and that's what they did. We expected that. I would have liked to weather it a bit, but we still got ourselves back in the game."

After Tuesday’s game four the series will shift back to the ‘Steel City’ for game five on Thursday.  Should a game six be necessary it’ll be played in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.