The Pittsburgh Penguins fell into an 0-2 hole on Friday night in their first-round series against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. As they did in Game 1, the Pens jumped on Philly in the first period but the Flyers stormed back, finishing with eight goals and two hat tricks. The Flyers never lead until the mid-way point of the final period, but then turned it up over the final ten minutes to run away with an 8-5 win.
After losing momentum in the second period, Pittsburgh quickly broke a 4-4 tie just a minute into the third when Tyler Kennedy scored his second goal of the series. Trailing a rush into the zone, Kennedy came skating to center ice from the right wing and took a pass from Matt Cooke. He quickly flipped a backhand past Ilya Bryzgalov for the 5-4 lead, getting the crowd back in it. Video of the goal below:
But that lead would last only 17 seconds, as Sean Couturier scored his second goal of the night. The goal was setup by a brutal turnover by Pens defenseman Ben Lovejoy, who tried to clear the puck with a skip pass across the ice. But Courturier made a great individual play and knocked it down with his stick. He took it the other way, catching the Pens' defense flat-footed and going one-on-one with Fleury to tie it up:
Former Penguin Jaromir Jagr then put the Flyers in front for the first time, scoring nine minutes into the third period to put Philly in up 6-5. Jagr took a rebound off a Pavel Kubina shot, which ricocheted off Marc-Andre Fleury right out to the stick of Jagr who was slowly skating by the crease. Jagr then quickly spun around and ripped a low shot that beat Fleury on the left side of the crease. Video of the goal below:
Courturier would remove all doubt, when he completed the hat trick with a little less than two minutes remaining to hand Philly a two-goal lead. Claude Giroux, who set a Flyer franchise record with six points, would join Courturier with a hat trick, dumping one into an empty net in the final seconds.
It was a tough loss, to say the least. The Flyers stormed back again from a multi-goal deficit and controlled play throughout the final 20 minutes to take the 2-0 series lead. Dan Bylsma and company have little time to regroup, as Game 3 is set for Sunday afternoon in what will be a raucous WellsFargo Center in Philly.
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