Again, Penguins can’t hold lead

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The Philadelphia Flyers fell behind. Again. And it didn’t matter. Again.

Who needs the first period anyway? Not the Flyers, who keep finding increasingly inventive ways to stun the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Claude Giroux had three goals and three assists to set a franchise record for points in a playoff game, rookie Sean Couturier had a hat trick of his own and Philadelphia rallied for a wild 8-5 victory Friday night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Two nights after turning an early three-goal deficit into a 4-3 overtime win, the Flyers were even more impressive while taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

The Penguins had leads of 2-0, 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4 at home and still couldn’t fend off Philadelphia, which did a little bit of everything.

The Flyers scored a pair of short-handed goals, added one on the power play and threw in an empty-netter to push a Pittsburgh team considered a Stanley Cup favorite to the brink.

“I don’t know how many times we’ll be able to do comebacks like that,” Giroux said. “We’ve got to have a better start.”

At this point, why bother?

Philadelphia scored seven goals in the game’s final 35 minutes, responding every time it appeared the Penguins were finally ready to take control. Jaromir Jagr and Max Talbot — both Cup winners in Pittsburgh — also scored for the Flyers.

“This team can always score goals,” said Jagr, who gave Philadelphia its first lead in regulation in the series midway through the third period. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can score goals.”

Including the 19-year-old Couturier. Assigned to slow down Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin, Couturier outscored the Russian for the first hat trick by a Philadelphia rookie since Andy Delmore in 2000.

Couturier admitted to feeling some jitters before the series opener. Funny, he hardly looked nervous when his third goal of the night sewed it up with 1:49 remaining before Giroux’s empty- netter completed the scoring.

Ilya Bryzgalov overcame another shaky start to stop 23 shots for the Flyers, who never blinked after getting down by multiple goals for the ninth time in their last 14 games.

Chris Kunitz had two goals for Pittsburgh, and Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy scored for the second straight game, but the Penguins again failed to close out the Flyers.

The Penguins tried to downplay their collapse in the opener, insisting there was plenty of hockey to play.

Perhaps, but there might not be much left after another stirring comeback by the Flyers. Philadelphia is 17-0 when it wins the first two games of a series.

“We’ve got to find a way to be better with the lead,” Crosby said. “We know they’re going to keep coming.”

The Flyers proved it in the third period after Kennedy’s goal put the Penguins up 5-4.