December hockey doesn't get much better than the Flyers' 3-2 win over the Penguins at the Wells Fargo Center last night. It was a satisfying victory for Philadelphia against its cross-state archrival, made even sweeter by the fact that the win moved the Flyers into first place both in the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.
Regardless of who was in or out of the lineups for the respective teams on the ice at the Wells Fargo Center last night, the Flyers played a tremendous hockey game against the Penguins. Philadelphia was the better team for two periods and then ran on fumes in the third period to hold off a Pittsburgh charge narrowly hang on to a 3-2 victory.
Injuries had nothing to do with the outcome. First of all, the absences of Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang for Pittsburgh were offset by the absence of Chris Pronger and the fact that Pittsburgh was rested and Philly was playing on consecutive nights and was coming off an overtime game in which the team had to rally from an early 3-0 deficit and then pick themselves right back up after yielding a late-game tying goal.
Secondly -- and more importantly -- there were still plenty of high-quality players and plenty of intensity on the ice for both sides.
As he did last weekend when the Flyers were in Anaheim and Phoenix on back-to-back nights, Ilya Bryzgalov bounced back from an uneven performance in Buffalo on Wednesday to come up with a stellar effort against the Penguins. Philly severely limited the shots Bryzgalov faced for about the first 35 minutes but he was bombarded over the latter part of the game.
Bryzgalov was called upon to make no fewer than 10 saves of the tough variety over the course of the game, and he delivered. Marc-Andre Fleury also played well for Pittsburgh, and neither goalie was at fault for any of the five goals scored in the game.
Philly's first goal was a case of a team making its own good luck. Danny Briere gained the offensive zone with a little bit of speed, pulled up and fired a shot that pinballed off both Pittsburgh defensemen and into the net. It never seems like the good-fortune goals like those ever quite balance off with the wide open nets where the puck takes a sudden hop away from a would-be shooter in point blank range, but the breaks do offset to some degree when a team is persistent enough.
All around, the Flyers played one of their best two-way periods of the season in the opening 20 minutes. The team's puck pursuit in the offensive end was tremendous and the players were dogged in their defensive support. Going back to the second period of the game in Buffalo, the Flyers mustered about 63 straight minutes of nearly flawless hockey.
Fleury made quite a few outstanding saves to keep the game 1-0 until nearly midway through the second period. That's when the Flyers power play broke through against the NHL's third-ranked penalty kill. Power plays goals don't get much prettier than this one:
Claude Giroux's pass from the circle to Fleury's right broke the penalty killing box with surgical precision, arriving right on the tape to Jakub Voracek near the post to Fleury's left. With the goalie scrambling, Voracek quickly feathered a pass to Wayne Simmonds on the opposite side. From there, it was a slam dunk.
The Flyers' third goal was the result of a tremendous play by Andrej Meszaros and the hustle of Scott Hartnell to crash the net. In the four December games to date, Meszaros has answered the call to elevate his game and help the club make up for the long-term absence of Pronger. Last night, in addition to the nice rush that led to the goal, he contributed three blocked shots and was credited with seven hits. Hartnell, meanwhile, kept alive his recent offensive hot streak.
As it turned out, the Flyers would need each and every one of the goals they got. The Penguins struck quickly right after the Hartnell goal, quickly converting an undisciplined interference penalty by Zac Rinaldo (who has generally been doing a good job at picking his spots, despite his hefty PIM totals) into a James Neal goal. The former Star, playing renewed confidence after a horrid slump last year that dated from December (while he was still in Dallas) to the end of the season, sniped a shot over Bryzgalov.
The third period was all Pittsburgh. One could almost sense that another Penguins goal was coming in the shifts leading up to Evgeni Malkin before it even happened. The Flyers' legs started to get heavy on them, and the Penguins activated their defensemen whenever the opportunity presented itself -- but in an intelligent way that did not leave themselves vulnerable to countterattacks.
Jaromir Jagr did not get on the scoreboard last night despite numerous excellent scoring chances. He was robbed a couple times by Fleury and missed the net -- including a late-game empty net opportunity -- on a couple of other occasions.
Nevertheless, the future Hall of Famer played an important role in preserving the win last night. He more or less started to take over the game in the final 4 minutes or so, especially on one shift where he singlehandedly occupied the puck deep in the offensive zone for over 30 seconds. Try as they might, the Pens simply could not take Jagr off the puck.
Philly actually had a couple of other cracks at the empty net but couldn't get the insurance goal to put the game away. Bryzgalov had to do it, denying a final rush by Malkin.
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The Flyers still list a scheduled practice for today at 11:30 AM. However, it seems far more likely that the players will get the day off instead. The club is back in action on Saturday night, hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning. The match will be the conclusion of one of those dreaded three-game-in-four-night stretches. Conserving energy will be vital after the grueling but emotionally uplifting games against the Sabres and Penguins.
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Apart from the players prominently mentioned in the game review, I think a few other Philadelphia players earned individual mention: Jakub Voracek, Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle.
Voracek has not been piling up many points of late, although he did get rewarded with a nice assist on the Simmonds. However, his forechecking work has been outstanding in the team's recent games. Last night, he had one particular shift that was Jagr-esque in the way that he controlled the puck in the offensive zone.
Meanwhile, Timonen and Carle have logged monstrous ice time in each of the last two games. Carle played a combined 54-plus minutes of hockey in the back-to-back games, while Timonen did a masterful job playing against the opposing top lines.
Braydon Coburn had a few shaky shifts both the Buffalo and Pittsburgh games but recovered the next time out on the ice. He played a 25:48 in Buffalo and 22:07 last night. In combined with Meszaros, Timonen and Carle, the Flyers defense has helped hold down the fort without Pronger in the lineup.
Marc-Andre Bourdon has generally done a decent job in the 13-14 minutes per game that he plays. Fellow rookie Kevin Marshall has been something of a liability, but has remained in the lineup over veteran Matt Walker.
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