Philly Sports Jabronis
Report From Philadelphia Flyers
* Jake Voracek participated in his second career NHL fight. His only other regular season bout was vs. Steve Olesky of Washington on March 31, 2013. He did have one preseason fight against Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang on Sept. 25, 2010.
* Voracek had 17 PIM, the second-most of his career. His career high is 19 accrued in the above-mentioned March 31 game. Voracek had 30 PIM on the entire season before tonight.
* Chris VandeVelde has recorded goals in three consecutive games. Before this season he had one goal in his career. VandeVelde has four goals and an assist for five points in his last six games.
* After being outshot 17-3 in the first period, the Flyers outshot the Penguins 37-18 over the rest of the game.
* The Flyers held Sidney Crosby without a point for the second straight meeting and 13th time in his 50 games against the Flyers.
* The Flyers had 59 PIM, the most they’ve had in a game since they recorded 99 vs. Washington on Nov. 1, 2013 (7-0 L). It’s the most PIM they’ve had in a regular season game against Pittsburgh since they had 115 on Feb. 16, 1992 (3-3 T). (They had 62 and 69 in Games 1 and 2, respectively, of the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.)
* Claude Giroux recorded his fourth career game-winning goal against Pittsburgh.
* The last time the Flyers recorded 37 or more shots after the first period of a game was March 30, 2014, when they had 11 shots after the first period and ended up with 52 in a 4-3 overtime loss vs. Boston.
* The Flyers won their sixth consecutive game against the Penguins and have outscored them 22-12 over that span.
* Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also recorded his first NHL fight.
GAME RECAP
PHILADELPHIA — Claude Giroux scored a power-play goal with 1:03 remaining in overtime to give the Philadelphia Flyers a 3-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.
Penguins goaltender Thomas Greiss stopped a shot by Jakub Voracek but left the rebound loose. Giroux reached into the pile and scored.
Luke Schenn and Chris VandeVelde scored for the Flyers (19-22-7). Goalie Ray Emery made 33 saves, including 17 in the first period.
Chris Kunitz and Beau Bennett scored for the Penguins (26-12-7), and Greiss made 37 saves.
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang left the game in the first period because of an undisclosed injury sustained on a hit by Flyers forward Zac Rinaldo.
The Flyers skated most of overtime on the power play after a cross-checking penalty on Zach Sill at the buzzer of the third period and a bench minor on the Penguins for too many men on the ice at 2:04.
Philadelphia, which has the best home power play in the NHL, finally scored on its seventh man-advantage.
VandeVelde tied the game 2-2 at 4:02 of the third when he got into the left circle and with his back to the goal tippedMichael Del Zotto‘s long shot from the left side between his legs past Greiss.
Beau Bennett gave the Penguins a 2-1 lead at 2:01 of the third when he finished a pretty play with Evgeni Malkin. Bennett carried the puck into the Flyers end on the left side and centered it to Malkin. Malkin waited for a Flyers player to slide past him, then found Bennett alone on the left side, and he beat Emery for his third goal of the season.
The Flyers had a chance on a power play when Robert Bortuzzo was called for tripping at 8:52 but did not score on four shots on goal.
The Penguins had two power plays midway through the period. Their best chance came with 1:53 left when Kunitz got the puck in the left slot and his shot deflected off Sidney Crosby, who was knocked down front of the net, and bounced off the inside of the right post.
Pittsburgh tied the game 1-1 on Kunitz’s shorthanded goal at 2:59 of the second period. With the Flyers on their first power play, a puck rolled back toward the point and Mark Streit reached to tip it to Voracek, but Kunitz stretched to get his stick on it and then broke out down the left side. Crosby was trailing for a late 2-on-1, but Streit and Voracek went toward Crosby, giving Kunitz an open path to the net. He snapped a shot from the left faceoff dot that beat Emery to the short side, over his blocker, for his 14th of the season.
It was part of a wild second period that saw the teams combine for four fights and 66 penalty minutes.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead on Schenn’s second goal of the season. Bennett won a board battle below the goal line but blindly backhanded the puck into the middle of ice where Schenn gathered it and shot one into traffic that got past Greiss at 13:11.
“Our forwards were doing a great job of forechecking and were able to create a turnover,” Schenn said. “The puck just happened to come up to the top of the blue line and the only thing I was trying to do was to get the puck through and hopefully create a rebound, but luckily it was able to find its way to the back of the net so I’ll take it.”
The Flyers were outshot 17-3 in the period. That included four shots for the Penguins on a power play early in the first and four late in the period when Rinaldo was given a five-minute major for boarding and a game misconduct for hitting Letang at 15:36.
Letang passed the puck when Rinaldo hit him from behind into the boards in the Penguins zone. Letang remained down on the ice before skating off to the locker room.
