As the glow of an amazing victory in Detroit two nights ago is wearing off, the Penguins have to get back to work against their cross-state rivals at Mellon Arena.

The Flyers and Penguins always come together to produce a very exciting hockey game. It doesn’t matter if the teams are hot or cold, winning or losing, they just seem to thrive on their dislike of one another. The two Atlantic Division opponents channel that dislike into a hard hitting, tightly checked display of aggression.

The rivalry between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia is one that transcends the game. The media and fans have gotten in on the action as well, and it is always a treat to see what comes out during the “day after” any game between these two opponents. You may recall the Philadelphia media voting Sidney Crosby as one of the games three stars in a blow out Philadelphia victory just so the Flyer faithful could boo him one last time that evening. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Penguins beat writer, Dave Molinari called his Philadelphia peers out for their actions in a column he wrote following that game.

There is no love lost between anyone on either side of this rivalry and that is what makes it so fun. Tonight should be another exciting chapter in the saga…here are some game notes…

The Flyers are 5-3-2 over their last 10 games, but only 2-3-0 over their last 5. The Penguins on the other hand are cruising along at 7-2-1 over their last 10 games and 4-1 in their last 5.

The two teams are meeting for the second time at Mellon Arena this season. The Penguins won their previous meeting 3-2 on Pascal Dupuis's game winner with 10 seconds remaining in overtime.

The Penguins are 4-2-1 on home ice this season, while the Flyers are 3-2-2 on the road.

Sidney Crosby, who has 6 pts (1G 5A) over his last four games, will face the Flyers for the 22nd time of his career, has tallied 37 points (16G-21A) against the cross-state rivals.

Evgeni Malkin, who ranks second in the league’s scoring race with 24 pts (5G 19A), is in the middle of an 11-game scoring streak. Malkin has played the Flyers 16 times in his career and has tallied 24 points (10G-14A) in those games.

Mike Zigomanis currently leads the NHL with a 64.2 winning percentage on faceoffs. Zigomanis, an unsung hero in Detroit on Tuesday night after winning two big faceoffs late in the game, has recorded three assists in his last two games. Hard to believe that he was acquired for futures, but sometimes a guy just doesn’t fit into one team’s plans, but meshes perfectly with another. Zigomanis looks to have shored up a significant weak spot that was pretty glaring on last year’s team. He has spent a great deal of time working with the Penguins young forwards to help them hone their faceoff skills.

Alex Goligoski has tallied points in four straight games (1G 3A), the longest streak of his young career. Goligoski‘s seven points (3G-4A) through 14 games rank him first in the NHL among rookie defenseman.

Kris Letang has registered assists in his last four games.

Both Letang and Goligoski have become very important contributors on the Penguins blue line and have done an admirable job in holding down the fort during Ryan Whitney’s and Sergei Gonchar’s absence.

The Penguins are off to their best start since the 1995-96 season. The Penguins are 9-4-2 with 20 points through 15 games. The ‘95-95 team, who made the conference finals, started the season 9-3-3.

Milestone Watch:

Pascal Dupuis is nine assists shy of reaching 100 in his career, and is two games shy of appearing in his 450th career NHL game.
Darryl Sydor is four goals shy of reaching 100 in his NHL career, and 10 assists shy of reaching 400 in his career.
Petr Sykora needs four power-play goals to reach 100 in his career
Marc-Andre Fleury is five wins away from tying Denis Herron for third all-time in wins (88) among Penguins’ goalies.
Mark Eaton is four games shy of appearing in 400 games in his career.
Rob Scuderi needs two penalty minutes to reach 100 in his career.
Miroslav Satan needs one point to reach 700 in his career, and is five goals shy of reaching 350 in his career.
Ruslan Fedotenko is four games shy of playing in his 550th career game and his six points shy of reaching 250 for his career.
Matt Cooke is six games shy of playing in his 600th career game.

Please join me as I will be live at Mellon Arena tonight bring you all of the action.

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Jordan Staal got the honor of starting the game in front of the home crowd...a well deserved honor after his finest performance of the season. He is centering a line with with Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy. They had some nice energy during their first shift...hopefully it is a sign of things to come on this night.

Crosby's line hit the ice next and Sid took a penalty on his first trip into the Flyers zone. The good news is that Kimmo Timonen promptly canceled Flyer power play with a penalty of his own.

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The Penguins will have :52 seconds to work with on the power play. Therrien is actually employing a unit featuring Mike Zigomanis in the middle, with Crosby, Malkin, Go Go and Letang.

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Though the Ziggy move seemed to be more of a line change issue, it was nice to him rewarded with some PP time. He has been great for the Penguins as of late.

Since I didn't mention it earlier, Rob Scuderi is in the line-up tonight...

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Sidney Crosby looks to have some extra hop tonight. He just made a nice move at the blue line and walked in the Flyer zone creating a nice scoring opportunity for himself. Biron made a nice kick save.

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Matt Cooke finally gets his first goal as a Penguins off of a great pass from Tyler Kennedy. Cookie Monster took the pass and made no mistake in firing it past Marty Biron. Letang gets the second helper...though it was a nice shot, I think Biron may want that one back.

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Through the first eight minutes of play, the Penguins seem to have gotten the better of the opportunities, but things can change in short order anytime these two teams play each other.

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Malkin and Sykora seem to have a nice rapport with Ruslan Fedotenko, at least it seems like it during the early going of this one. They just worked themselves into the Flyers zone with some nifty passing. A little to nifty for guys who haven't spent a ton of time together this season...which is a good thing for the Penguins.

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The Penguins are headed back to the box...Brooks Orpik was just called for hooking.

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The Penguins did a great job of killing off the penalty, led largely by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Hal Gill. Crosby once again showed the liveliness that he has been displaying throughout the game in flying through the neutral zone and almost getting behind the Flyers defense.

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Braydon Coburn, with the help of Evgeni Malkin's momentum, drove Geno into the boards. It looked a lot worse than it actually was, as Malkin was sort of falling when Coburn hit him. That got Ruslan Fedotenko's ire up a bit and the ensuing scrum resulted in another Penguins power play.

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Aside from an attempted one timer to the right of the cage by Miro Satan, the Penguins didn't get much going on the power play.

Overall, the period produced about what we thought it would. Some heated tempers at times, hitting and not a lot of offense. Special teams may end up being the difference in this one, as each team has already gone on the power play two times.

Crosby, Staal, Zigomanis, and Kennedy were very noticeable in the period...Coburn, Richards, and Hartnell for the Flyers.

After one, the Penguins hold onto a 1-0 lead...

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Each team has 11 hits...the Flyers are absolutely slaughtering the Penguins in the faceoff circle, as they have won 10 of 15 faceoffs. It hasn't become an issue yet, hopefully Zigomanis and the Penguins can turn that around as the game goes on.

Scuderi, he of the injured foot, is actually leading all Penguins skaters with 9:24 of ice time in the period. Only the Flyers Kimmo Timonen is ahead of him with 9:33.

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Ruslan Fedotenko and Evgeni Malkin just worked a give and go as they entered the Flyers zone. Malkin flipped the puck to "Tank" who dropped it back to him...Geno pulled it around the Flyers defender and went forehand, backhand flipping the puck past Marty Biron. With the goal, Malkin extends his consecutive points streak to twelve games.

2-0 Pens

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Jeff Carter just found himself in the box for hooking...Pens back on the power play...

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Sidney Crosby just took a Petr Sykora feed and used a great burst of speed to get into a one on one situation with Marty Biron. Crosby, take the puck to his backhand, flipped a snap shot over Biron's short side shoulder. Biron seemingly went down to early, something he has done in those situations against the Penguins in the past. That is surely another that he could like to have back.

3-0 Pens

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Linesman, Thor Nelson, just took a Flyer clearing attempt to the back of the head. Though shaken up for a bit, he looks to be ok. Always a frightening moment when that occurs...sometimes they just can't get out of the way.

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Well, I just went without my internet connection for about 7 minutes and the Flyers sprung to life getting back to back goals from Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne. The Gagne goal was a great individual effort while short handed.

This is a brand new game...who will step up??

3-2 Pens...

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The Flyers are on the power play, with one of the Penguins best penalty killers in the box in Max Talbot. They have taken a lot of the momentum and are getting a ton of traffic in front on Marc Andre Fleury.

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The Penguins just got a great short handed opportunity of their own, as Evgeni Malkin took a feed and lashed a shot the Biron had to snag with his big catching glove.

Moments later, the Penguins got Max Talbot coming out of the box and he was in one on one against Luca Sbisa. Sbisa had no choice but to take a penalty and sort of spun Talbot around. The crazy thing is that Talbot ended up with his stick backwards between his legs and still got off a shot.

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Simon Gagne just got his second short handed goal of the game. He and Mike Richards went in on what amounted to a two on one and Gagne one timed a nice Richards feed past Marc Andre Fleury. That was one I am sure that Fleury would like to have back...

3 UP!

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The Flyers will have a split power play, unless they score in the next 56 seconds. Mark Eaton interfered with Scottie Upshall as he was going to the net...Upshall flew into the goal post but was ok. 2:00 for Eaton...

* * * * *

So much for the split power play....the Flyers have just taken a 4-3 lead. Joffery Lupul deflected a Kimmo Timonen shot from the point with some part of his body and the puck flipped into the air and over Marc Andre Fleury. A bit of a fluky goal, but they count just the same...

4-3 Flyers...

The Penguins watched as their three goal lead evaporated in the final 12 minutes of the second period. Special teams are definitely a factor, as I speculated they would be, but I didn't envision that it would be on the short handed side of things. The Flyers used two shorties and a power play goal to pull ahead.

The Penguins are now being outshot 24-16, but are outhitting the Flyers 24-17. The Penguins got a bit better in the face off dot, but are still on the wrong end of things winning only 44 % of their trips into the circle.

* * * * *

Michel Therrien has opted to switch his goaltender...Dany Sabourin is now in the game for the Penguins. Short leash for Fleury this evening...though he did allow a handful of goals that were below standard.

I am not completely thrilled with the decision to pull Fleury in this game, but Coach T obviously had seen enough with his goaltender allowing 10 goals over the last two games...it is worth noting that all 10 were not MA Fleury's fault.

* * * * *

Time is against the Penguins here...tick, tock, tick, tock. The boys, who at one point possessed a three goal lead, find themselves staring down the barrel of a 4-3 deficit with just under 12 minutes remaining in regulation.

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Miro Satan's assist on the third Penguins goal was the 700th point of his NHL career.

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The Penguins will have a chance here as the Flyers have given them a power play opportunity with 8:00 minutes remaining in regulation. Joffery Lupul got caught with a high stick on Zigomanis.

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The Penguins just couldn't get it going during the power play...the Flyers put together a very effective penalty kill. In fact they have done a great job all evening long in shutting the Penguins down with the extra attacker. At this point, the Flyers have more goals during Penguin power plays that the Penguins have shots... 2-1

A second shot has just been added for the Penguins power play...they are now tied shots for goals...

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The Flyers are holding onto a one goal lead with 4 minutes remaining in the game. I will be headed down to the rooms for post game reaction...more post game...