Philadelphia claims key victory over Pens

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Ville Leino and the Philadelphia Flyers found a way to solve Marc-Andre Fleury and might have put away the pesky Pittsburgh Penguins, too.

Ville Leino scored twice in the third period for the Flyers, who rallied to beat the Penguins 5-2 on Tuesday night to stay atop the Eastern Conference.

Philadelphia has led the Eastern Conference and the Atlantic Division since Jan. 8, but the Penguins had won eight of 10 and had a chance to tie their cross-state rivals at 100 points with a regulation victory.

“It’s sometimes tough when teams are not that close to you and you’re clear for playoffs and you’re in the number one spot,” Leino said. “But now teams are close to us. This was a desperate game today, and we played good.”

Goals by Jeff Carter, Scott Hartnell, and Claude Giroux and 25 saves by Sergei Bobrovsky helped preserve the conference lead for the Flyers, who won in regulation for the second time in seven games. They have a three-point lead on Washington in the race for the No. 1 seed in the East.

Alex Kovalev and Tyler Kennedy scored for Pittsburgh, which had won four straight games in a shootout to stay in the division race despite being without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for most of the second half of the season.

The Flyers used a few tricky bounces to beat Fleury, who had allowed only two goals in three games and had won six of eight starts with a 1.68 goals-against average and one shutout.

“A couple times it just bounced low everywhere and ended up in the net,” Fleury said. “It’s tough, especially against a team like that where we are fighting for a spot.”

Leino had the final two goals of the game, each on a peculiar deflection. He made it 4-2 early in the third when Hartnell’s shot from the point bounced off Leino’s upper body as he stood just to the left of Fleury — and then, again, off the back of Fleury and into the net.

“We haven’t had those lucky bounces, I guess you could say,” Hartnell said.