GAME 6 WRAP: FLYERS ELIMINATED BY 8-5 LOSS TO PENGUINS

The Philadelphia Flyers' 2017-18 campaign is over. The team played with a lot of heart but were too sporadic in puck management and execution in Game 6, as they were unable to protect leads of 1-0 and 4-2 before going down to an 8-5 elimination loss.

Playing on what he admitted after the game was a torn MCL in his right knee -- normally a four-week injury -- Sean Couturier delivered a hat trick and two assists in Game 6. However, Jake Guentzel had four goals -- actually a natural hat trick plus another -- and an assist while Sidney Crosby and the returning Patric Hörnqvist each had a goal and two assists.

Ivan Provorov, who was in tears at the end of the game, tried to grit his way through a left shoulder injury suffered late in Game 5. He was strong in coverage, as usual, but severely compromised in handling, passing and shooting the puck. Nevertheless, he was kept on the second power play unit rather than moving Andrew MacDonald (who had the Flyers' second goal and a pair of tallies in the series) onto the second unit with the scratched Travis Sanheim unavailable.

In the meantime, the Penguins played Game 6 without star center Evgeni Malkin and still managed to drop eight goals on the Flyers. The Penguins scored five or more goals in all four regular season matchups as well as four of the six games of the playoff series.

Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said after the game that he had considered starting seven defensemen (the 7th almost certainly would have been Sanheim, who took pregame warmups just in case) but since the team was banged up at forward as well as defense, opted to go with 12 forwards.

Michal Neuvirth was hung out to dry repeatedly by the team in front of him. Of the seven goals he yielded on 27 shots, six were point blank (one off a fat rebound) and one was a heavily screened deflection that pinballed into the net. Matt Murray was not impressive, either, in stopping 21 of 26 shots. At least one, and possibly two, looked stoppable.

Valtteri Filppula came up big in Game 5 but was not able to duplicate it in Game 6 matched against Crosby while Couturier's line with Scott Laughton and Wayne Simmonds excelled in more favorable matchups. Filppula, who lost a draw to Crosby and then his coverage of the most dangerous player on the ice on the sequence that ended in Pittsburgh's first goal, finished at minus-four in 15:47 of ice time.

There were plenty of other Flyers who had a rough go: It was a tough series for Claude Giroux (one goal, two assists in six games), Shayne Gostisbehere (on both sides of the puck), Jakub Voracek (ditto), Wayne Simmonds and others. The Flyers lack of blueline depth got exposed, and they didn't have enough of their stars step up or receive the stellar goaltending they would have needed to overcome all of that to get the series to a Game 7.

Lastly, with the exception of going 2-for-3 on the power play in Game 2, the Flyers went 0-for-the-series. That's not nearly good enough.

1ST PERIOD SYNOPSIS

The Filppula line started against the Crosby line. Provorov missed an errant pass from Andrew MacDonald but MacDonald atoned with a hit that dumped Crosby to the ice.

Laughton won a foot race to a puck in the right corner tipped in deep by Couturier. Laughton centered a puck off the side of the net to a wide open Simmonds in front. Murray made the save but the rebound set behind him and the Pens' Chad Ruhwedel was unable to clear it. Couturier bulldozed his way to the net past Jamie Oleksiak and jammed the puck home for a 1-0 lead at 2:15.

Provorov joined a rush and fired a weak wrist shot on net from the deep middle slot. At 4:48, Simmonds was denied in close by Murray.

The Penguins won a lengthy battle behind the Flyers net and Neuvirth made a stop on a right point shot by Ruhwedel for a TV timeout at 6:24. Shots were 7-2 Flyers.

Crosby won the ensuing right circle faceoff cleanly from Filppula. Pittsburgh rotated the puck D-to-D. Letang's shot produced a fat rebound and a wide-open Crosby stashed it home for a 1-1 tie at 6:30.

The Pens scored again quickly at 7:17. Hagelin was wide open at the doorstep to take a Kessel centering feed and score. Sheahan got the secondary assist. On the play, Gostisbehere went behind the net with Nolan Patrick already there and MacDonald occupied with Sheahan. That left the front of the net wide open.

Neuvirth made a save on Guentzel on a 3-on-2 shot from the right circle at 8:55.

The Penguins had the better of the territorial play until the Flyers struck back to re-tie the game at 2-2 at 15:28. MacDonald hammered a D-to-D Provorov pass through traffic and into the net. The secondary assist went to Couturier.

A very, very long delayed penalty was finally whistled at 18:35 after a minute of chaos. Neuvirth unwisely shoveled a puck to Gudas, and a Keystone Kops shift unfolded as play progressed. There was a mad scramble around the Flyers net after a pad save and goal post hit (and Gudas appeared to cover the loose puck with his hand), then a continuation of play after the Flyers cleanly tipped the puck out of the zone but it was ruled no possession. Finally, Laughton went to the box for interference on Derick Brassard.

The Flyers broke up a couple of plays on the PK and narrowly got two zone clears. Pittsburgh took 35 seconds of carryover power play time to the second period.

First period shots were 11-10 Pittsburgh.

2ND PERIOD SYNOPSIS

The Penguins power play went offside. The Flyers killed the penalty. At the 40-second mark, Couturier had a breakaway after a Hörnqvist turnover in the neutral zone. The play appeared to be broken as Couturier momentarily lost control. But he stayed patient, moved with the puck on the forehand and found the net between a sprawling Murray's pads.

Scoring chances galore -- for both teams -- followed. Gostisbehere had back-to-back turnovers and Neuvirth made a tough save on Sheahan. The Flyers second line generated enormous pressure on the next shift but couldn't cash in a MacDonald rebound. At 4:23, Neuvirth stoned an open Hagelin from the right hash marks.

Play finally settled down for a few minutes. At 6:29, Dale Weise drilled Carter Rowney with a crunching hit at the defensive blueline to end a play. Shots were a deceptive 4-2 Pittsburgh.

Raffl missed the net on a great shift by his line with Nolan Patrick and Konecny. On the next shift, Giroux crashed the net on a give-and-go and was robbed by Murray. The Flyers captain was cross-checked hard to the ice, but play continued. Simmonds got a right circle blast on net. Laughton worked a give-and-go with Gostisbehere but the shot by the Flyers defenseman was blocked out of play. Shots were 5-5 through 9:25.

Giroux blasted Hagelin, who had his head down, with a big hit behind the Pittsburgh goal line. Kessel tried to retaliate on Giroux at the other end and took a roughing penalty at 9:43 that gave the Flyers their first power play.

The Flyers first unit rotated the puck crisply until Voracek tried to force a pass into the slot. The second unit got well set up until a Konecny pass went off Gostisbehere's skate and was cleared. Pittsburgh survived the penalty.

Oleksiak got caught on a bad pinch and the Flyers countered as Couturier sprung Laughton behind him. From the left circle, Laughton blasted a puck past Murray at 12:14 for a 4-1 lead. Couturier got the lone assist.

The Penguins got the goal back quickly. Gudas turned a puck over in the defensive zone and the Pens moved it around very fast after it was held in at the blue line. Crosby passed to Guentzel who went to Hörnqvist for a point-blank goal from the right slot at 13:35.

Shots were 7-6 Flyers (17-17 overall) at a TV timeout at 14:34.

Sheary and Konecny did battle in the Flyers zone. Konecny put Sheary in a headlock. Sheary responded by roughing Konecny in front of referee Eric Furlatt, who let play continue. Konecny then responded with a blatant cross-check. Finally, box players were penalized at 16:09 to set up 4-on-4 play. The penalty calls were actually reversed, but the end result was the same.

Provorov had a chance from the circle off the rush after a missed shot by Pittsburgh. Murray made the save. Letang pinched with 20 seconds left in 4-on-4 and fired wide.

Simmonds narrowly missed tipping in point shot and then landed a big hit in the corner.

Pittsburgh tied the game at 4-4 at the 19:06 mark. It started with another Gudas giveaway; this time to Guentzel behind the net. A left point shot by Määttä was ruled to be tipped by a screening Guentzel, went off the post then pinballed off the goalie and into the net. The assists went to Määttä and Hörnqvist.

Shots were 10-9 Pittsburgh (21-19 Pittsburgh overall).

3RD PERIOD SYNOPSIS

Provorov could not handle a MacDonald pass with a forechecker lurking and then lost the puck to Kessel on a breakout, creating a 2-on-1 chance down low. Guentzel scored to open a 5-4 Pittsburgh lead at the 30-second mark.

The Penguins iced the puck at 5:54 after a good shift by Giroux. Shots were 1-0 Penguins. The offensive zone draw was lost by Patrick, however, and the Penguins broke out of the zone.

Dumoulin took a delay of game penalty for a puck flip over the defensive zone glass at 6:15. The Flyers went on a vital power play. Philly generated some puck movement but no shots on goal. Mostly, they retrieved clears.

Shots were 2-0 Pittsburgh at the 10-minute mark. Off a draw in the Flyers zone, Guentzel was given an interference penalty and Voracek an embellishment penalty to avoid giving a power play and set up 4-on-4 play at 10:05. The Flyers got 1:28 of 4-on-3 power play time as Couturier was cross-checked behind the Pittsburgh net by Letang.

Gostisbehere missed the net on a shot. Giroux got blocked and the Pens cleared. A bad Gostisbehere pass for Couturier resulted in a clear. Couturier had a one-timer saved and then missed the net on his next shot try. With play moving to 5-on-4, Couturier fired a right side shot that Murray stopped as the net came off its moorings.

Letang, out of the box, blatantly knocked Couturier's skates out from under him on a wrap around the boards by Neuvirth. Play was nevertheless allowed to continue by the officials and it was fatal to the Flyers: Letang to Crosby, Crosby to Guentzel point blank, and into the net at 12:48.

Pittsburgh then opened a 7-4 lead immediately off the next faceoff. Guentzel went to the net, took a cross-ice pass from Hörnqvist and scored at 12:48 for his fourth goal of the game at 12:58.

Couturier completed a hat trick at 17:07, potting a Giroux rebound to make it a 7-5 game. The Penguins challenged for goalie interference. The replay was very brief: good goal. Giroux got the lone assist.

The Flyers pulled Neuvirth for a 6-on-5. Couturier was stopped on a bid for a fourth goal. Provorov lost a puck to Rust, who scored into an empty net from the neutral zone with 30.4 seconds left.

Shots were 7-7 (28-26 Penguins overall).