Sports Network | October 29, 2010
(Sports Network) - The Philadelphia Flyers will attempt to win consecutive games for the first time this season when they visit the rival Pittsburgh Penguins tonight at CONSOL Energy Center.
The Flyers will also try to exact a measure of revenge against the Penguins after Pittsburgh dismantled Philadelphia, 5-1, at the Wells Fargo Center back on Oct. 16. The Flyers and Pens have split two meetings so far this year, as Philly earned a 3-2 win on Oct. 7 in the first-ever game at Pittsburgh's new arena.
Overall, the Pens have taken six of eight and eight out of 11 in this series, but the Flyers have won two of three and three of five in the Steel City.
Philadelphia last played on Tuesday against Buffalo and skated to a 6-3 win over the visiting Sabres. Jeff Carter recorded a goal and two assists as the Flyers posted a season-high for goals in a game.
Claude Giroux and Danny Briere added a goal and a helper each for the Flyers, who also notched a season-best three power-play goals. Nikolay Zherdev, Darroll Powe and Andreas Nodl also tallied to back 32 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.
Scott Hartnell also recorded an assist in the win to push his point streak to five games.
"I think we're capable of scoring more goals than we have this year and tonight it was nice to put some in the back of the net," said Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette, whose club looked moribund in a 2-1 loss at Columbus on Monday. "And to get it from different people, it seemed like everybody had a hand in it."
The Flyers are 0-2-1 in games directly following wins this year and are also just 1-1-1 on the road.
The Penguins, meanwhile, enter tonight having dropped two in a row (0-1-1) and were dealt a 5-3 setback Wednesday in Tampa. Martin St. Louis scored a pair of third-period goals as the Lightning rallied from a two-goal first-period deficit to beat the Penguins.
Craig Adams notched a goal and two helpers for the Penguins, who had won four in a row prior to dropping their last two outings.
Matt Cooke and Pascal Dupuis also lit the lamp, but Marc-Andre Fleury faltered late and allowed four goals on 30 shots in the setback.
"I just thought we took too many penalties," noted Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik of his team, which was called for 10 penalties and gave the Lightning seven power-play chances. "Even with them not scoring on every one, it's exactly what you can't do if you want to win."
Pittsburgh forward Arron Asham did make his Penguins debut in Wednesday's loss after sitting out the first nine games of the year with a shoulder injury. That means Asham, who played the previous two seasons in Philly, will get a chance to face his former team tonight.
The Pens are 2-3-0 on home ice this year after losing the first three games in the short history of the CONSOL Energy Center.