Flyers quiet the Penguins

Flyers quiet the Penguins
By Tim Panaccio
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
PITTSBURGH -- Throughout their nearly 38 years as a National Hockey League franchise, the Pittsburgh Penguins have had their share of glorious moments.
An outstanding reign in goal from Tom Barrasso. Consecutive Stanley Cups in the early 1990s. Some fabulous, record-breaking offensive teams led by Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr.
On Saturday, another piece of Penguins history went into the books, albeit one coach Eddie Olczyk would rather ignore. The Flyers defeated them, 5-3, giving the Penguins a club-record ninth consecutive home defeat.
Lemieux might own the worst team in the NHL, but it's one that consistently plays the Flyers tough.
"They always seem to be motivated to play against the top teams," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We had the game in control three times. We kept taking momentum and giving it back to them."
Outstanding penalty-killing allowed for the victory, especially in the third period, when the Flyers killed off a two-man disadvantage. Keith Primeau, Eric Weinrich, Kim Johnson and Danny Markov rotated in three-man units with the Flyers protecting a 3-1 lead.
Over the last four games, the Flyers have killed off all 18 of their penalties, and they are slowly moving up in the league rankings after falling to 19th on Jan. 20.
"It's something we have really tried to bear down on," Weinrich said. "On the five-on-three, we're trying to eliminate the easy tap-ins. You hope your goalie stops the shots from distance and you get to the rebounds."
Pittsburgh did score after the penalties expired when Matt Bradley got a rebound goal that goalie Robert Esche initially stopped. That made it 3-2.
"The puck was right in front of me," Esche said. "I went down to get it and next thing, it's behind me. ... They're a frustrating team against us. What do they do against the rest of the league?"
Several times on Saturday, the Flyers left rebounds in harm's way.
"We allowed too many second opportunities at the net," Hitchcock said.
Late in the third period, the Flyers got a two-man advantage and capitalized on Michal Handzus' 12th goal, but the feisty Penguins got a bad shorthanded goal from Ryan Malone to again make it a one-goal affair at 4-3.
"They really make it tough to play against them," Mark Recchi said. "Eschey made some big saves at the end when it mattered."
Donald Brashear had an empty-netter in the final minute, after setting up the game's first goal at 3 minutes, 21 seconds of the opening period.
After Primeau won an offensive draw back to the left corner, Brashear outmuscled defenseman Martin Strbak for the puck, but fell to the ice. While falling, he managed to swipe the puck into the slot, where Sami Kapanen flipped a shot over goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin. Kapanen returned Saturday after missing two games with sore ribs.
Although Pittsburgh was outshot, 14-5, in the first period, four of those shots were quality ones. Esche made a terrific chest stop on Milan Kraft and a nice pad save on Aleksey Morozov, who has now gone 33 games without a goal.
Esche usually doesn't make poor plays when clearing pucks, but he goofed in the second period, giving the Penguins an easy goal at 1:44. He ventured too far into the left corner to rap the puck off the boards and instead sent it to Rico Fata.
He then locked skates with teammate Joni Pitkanen while scrambling to get back. That gave Fata time to line the puck behind the net to Tom Kostopoulos, who passed it to Tomas Surovy for an easy stuffer. Esche nearly made the stop on a backward, sideways slide into the crease.
The Flyers killed off two Penguins power plays that period as Esche came up big with a cover-up save on Morozov during the first Pittsburgh advantage. Those kills were important because the Flyers then scored twice in the span of just over a minute on goals from Patrick Sharp and John LeClair.
From the right slot, Sharp one-timed Radovan Somik's pass into the net at 13:33 for his second goal of the season, breaking the 1-1 tie. The key, however, was Todd Fedoruk, who dug a puck out of the right boards and then found Somik at the goal line.
"Fridge made the whole play," Sharp said of Fedoruk, who came off the bench to replace Simon Gagne in a late shift change. "He really forechecked to win the puck and used his speed. He and Somik went low; I went high and I yelled for it."
LeClair's 14th goal at 14:42 came on the power play. The left winger battled free in the crease to rebound Recchi's bullet from the right circle past Aubin for a 3-1 lead. It was LeClair's fourth goal in eight games.
"We've had it going pretty good on the power play," LeClair said. "We did a good job moving it high to low."
The line of LeClair, Recchi and Handzus has 28 points in the last eight games.
"Last couple of games it's been a little wide open," LeClair said. "It's been fun."
Loose pucks. With defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson back in the lineup, fellow veteran Chris Therien was a healthy scratch ... Sharp changed his number from 32 to 9. He's a big fan of Dallas' Mike Modano. The last Flyer to wear No. 9 was Dean McAmmond. ... The Flyers are 2-1-2 this season against Pittsburgh.
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