Depleted Penguins play well, tie Flyers

Philadelphia is winless in two games against Pittsburgh this season.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Traveling to Pittsburgh was supposed to be the easiest way for an opposing NHL team to earn two points on the road this season.
The surprise is some of the league's top teams are departing town a point or two short.
The rebuilding Penguins played another strong game against a much better team, relying on Sebastien Caron's excellent goaltending for a 1-1 tie against the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
The Flyers pushed their unbeaten streak to 10 games (8-0-2), yet are winless in two games against the Penguins. Pittsburgh has fewer points (16) than any NHL team except Washington (15).
"We weren't ready and they were," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It was a disappointing point for us. If we had been ready for the first half of the game the way we were for the second half, it would have been a much different result."
The talent-thin Penguins (5-10-4-2) also have beaten the Senators, Red Wings and Bruins, yet often play much worse against the league's lower-tier teams than they do against the best clubs.
"We have some confidence right now and we know going into any game there's a good chance we can get one or two points," forward Rico Fata said. "We definitely have played our best games against the top teams."
Good in goal
Philadelphia outshot Pittsburgh 20-3 during the third period and overtime and 39-20 overall, but still needed Eric Chouinard's goal off Caron's misplay with just over six minutes left in the second period to tie it.
"I think teams that come in higher in the standings aren't ready to dig in and they are ready to dig in," Hitchcock said. "They are trying to make a name for themselves. ... They know they aren't going to out-talent anybody, they know they aren't going to outscore anybody, but they are going to try to frustrate you and they are very good at it."
Occasionally, the Penguins aggravate their own coach with their unwillingness to buy into his Minnesota-like defensive system, but Eddie Olczyk was satisfied with this tie.
"It's a challenge for us every night when you play the teams that are picked by the experts to be there," Olczyk said.
Still, the Penguins didn't allow the Flyers a single odd-man rush, and likely would have won if they had converted on a two-man advantage lasting 55 seconds midway through the third period.
Dick Tarnstrom put the Penguins up 1-0 in the final minute of the first period with only their 10th power-play goal in 20 games. But the Penguins, who have an NHL-worst 9.8 percent success rate, failed to convert on their other five power plays.
Caron kept the Penguins in the game, following up a strong performance in a 2-1 overtime victory Saturday over Ottawa by turning aside 38 of 39 shots.
Notes
Flyers backup goalie Robert Esche made 19 saves to push his record to 6-1-2. He has allowed only 16 goals.
Fata thought he redirected Tarnstrom's shot from just inside the left-wing boards, but Tarnstrom was credited with his fourth goal.
The Penguins have sold out only one of their 10 home games. The crowd of 11,014 the night before Thanksgiving was more than 5,000 below capacity.
The Penguins are 2-6-0-2 without the injured Mario Lemieux (left hip flexor).