Penguins knocked out of playoffs

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

Claude Giroux had his coach call him the best player in the world.

Giroux needed one shift to prove that claim is more than hometown hype.

He flattened Sidney Crosby only five seconds into the game, buried his sixth goal of the series past Marc-Andre Fleury 27 seconds later, and led a Philadelphia Flyers charge into the second round.

Giroux wrapped up a dominant series with a goal and two assists, Ilya Bryzgalov had his first outstanding effort in net and the Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-1 on Sunday to win their Eastern Conference opening-round series in six games.

“G is a very special player,” Bryzgalov said. “There’s not very many players like that in the world.”

Giroux strapped the Flyers to his 24-year-old back and gave the Flyers an opening shift to remember. In a series where no lead was safe, the Flyers scored the first three goals and made it stand behind stout defense and stellar play of Bryzgalov.

Bryzgalov allowed 20 goals in the first five games. He settled down in Game 6 and gave up only Evgeni Malkin’s goal in the second period.

“Guys were sacrificing their bodies to block shots and were paying the price taking hits to make plays,” Flyers forward Scott Hartnell said. “It was awesome to see.”

Bryzgalov was at last the shutdown goalie the Flyers expected when they gave him $51 million to steady one of Philadelphia’s weak links. He outplayed Fleury and helped the Flyers advance to the conference semifinals for the third straight season.

Fleury had seemingly pulled it together after some awful efforts in Games 2 and 3. He steadied the Penguins in a Game 5 victory and had the Penguins feeling confident about sending the series back to Pittsburgh for Game 7.

So much for that.

“We needed to play perfect hockey to stay in this series, to win this series, and we didn’t get the kind of start we needed today,” Crosby said.