Penguins Rally, Eliminate Flyers

After getting shutout on home ice Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins appeared to be in some serious trouble on Saturday afternoon as they spotted the Philadelphia Flyers a three-goal lead early in the second period.

Five unanswered goals, and a couple of key saves by Marc-Andre Fleury later, the Penguins escaped Philadelphia with a 5-3 win, eliminating the Flyers in six games to advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

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You can debate the true turning point of this game, but how about Daniel Carcillo's beat down of Max Talbot in the second period? At that point, the Flyers were in total control of the game, appearing to be destined for a game 7 in Pittsburgh on Monday night.

Soon after the scrap, the Penguins received quick goals from Ruslan Fedoteno and Mark Eaton to start the comeback, only to have Sidney Crosby bang home a bouncing puck on the door step to tie the score at three. Why was Carcillo even willing to fight ? What would it have accomplished? What was the point? Whatever it was, it seemed to be all the motivation the Penguins needed to step up their game. And they did. While it's impossible to put any sort of value on what type of impact a fight can have, I don't think it's a coincidence that the game took a complete 180-degree turn almost immediately following that moment.

Just three minutes into the third period, Sergei Gonchar scored the eventual game-winner, blasting a slap shot from the top of the circle that beat Philadelphia goaltender Martin Biron, giving Penguins their first lead since the end of game 4.



For the Penguins, the final 17 minutes of regulation had to be endless, as the Flyers had a couple of strong scoring opportunities, ringing one off the post and watching Fleury make another game-changing save, turning aside Joffrey Lupul.



The Penguins sealed the win when Crosby scored his second of the game, and fourth of the series, with an empty net goal in the closing seconds.

Make no mistake, outside of game 1, this series certainly lived up to the hype as the Flyers gave the Penguins everything they could possibly handle, outplaying them in many situations. The difference, as it is in many playoff series', was the play of the two goalies. While Biron played extremely well for Philadelphia, Fleury was simply a game-changer for the Penguins.

Pittsburgh will now await the outcomes of the Washington-New York and Carolina-New Jersey series to find out their second round opponent. If the Rangers defeat Washington, the Penguins will take on the winner of the Carolina-New Jersey series. If the Capitals complete their comeback and eliminate the Rangers, Pittsburgh will take on Boston.