Malkin scores 50th goal as Pens double up Flyers

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Evgeni Malkin watched the puck hit the back of the net, dropped to a knee and let loose an emphatic fist pump as the largest crowd in the brief history of Consol Energy Center — including his parents — chanted “MVP! MVP!”

The Russian star’s 50th goal of the season in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Philadelphia sewed up the Art Ross trophy as the league’s top scorer likely inched to his first Hart Trophy as the league’s Most Valuable Player, but Malkin knows all the personal accolades won’t mean a thing if the Penguins don’t bring home their second Stanley Cup in four years.

“I am glad, this is a great season,” Malkin said. “But we need to work hard in the playoffs, too.”

First up, the Flyers, who treated the meaningless regular-season finale as little more than an exhibition. Claude Giroux sat out as a precaution, as did No. 1 goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

“If the game meant something, it would have been a lot more intense,” Philadelphia forward Scott Hartnell said. “We came out of it unscathed I think and now we’ve got to go after them and play our hearts out.”

Hartnell predicts “a lot of blood” when the puck drops for Game 1 on Wednesday, which gave the regular season finale a bit of a surreal feel.

Outside of some first-period fisticuffs between Pittsburgh’s Joe Vitale and Philadelphia’s Harry Zolnierczyk, there was little of the bile of their previous meeting, a 6-4 Philadelphia win last Sunday that included a brawl in the final minutes and coaches from both teams pointing fingers at the other.

“A lot of what needed to happen, happened and we survived and it’s over,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said.

Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz and Pascal Dupuis also scored for the Penguins, who knocked off the Flyers for the first time at home. Brent Johnson stopped five shots in relief of Marc-Andre Fleury to get the win, though he couldn’t hold a one-goal lead, preventing Fleury from setting a franchise record with his 227th career victory.

It was the lone disappointment during an otherwise workmanlike performance for Pittsburgh.