Couturier scores late, Flyers edge Penguins to force Game 6
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sean Couturier’s long shot from the point got past Matt Murray with 1:17 left and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 on Friday night to force sixth game in the first-round series.
The Flyers cut the Penguins’ series lead to 3-2 going into Game 6 on Sunday in Philadelphia.
After missing Game 4 with a lower-body injury, Couturier extended his team’s season at least two more days by picking up his second goal of the series. Claude Giroux, Valtteri Filppula and Matt Read also scored for the Flyers. Michal Neuvirth stopped 30 shots, including a diving stop on the doorstep to deny Penguins star Sidney Crosby shortly after Couturier’s knuckler put Philadelphia in front.
Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust scored for the Penguins. Matt Murray made 21 saves but had no chance on Couturier’s winner as the puck found its way through a sea of players and into the net.
A series that figured to be taut instead started with four straight blowouts, most of them ending with the Flyers skating off the ice wondering what they needed to do to keep pace with cross-state rivals.
Philadelphia coach Dave Hakstol, perhaps fighting for his job, made his first significant change in an effort to keep his team’s season alive, giving Neuvirth his first playoff start in nearly two years and his first start of any variety in more than two months after Brian Elliott couldn’t shake out of a funk that saw him pulled in Game 1 and again in Game 4.
The Flyers also Couturier back to center the third line just three days removed from a scary practice collision with teammate Radko Judas that left Couturier with a lower-body injury that forced him to watch Pittsburgh’s clinical 5-0 Game 4 romp from the press box.
There was no need for change in Pittsburgh, which has developed a killer instinct under coach Mike Sullivan it lacked at times earlier in the Crosby/Malkin era. The Penguins came in 8-5 in potential close-out games since Sullivan took over in December, 2015, including a 5-2 mark at home.
Make it 5-3.
Giroux, a non-factor through much of the series, gave Philadelphia the lead 17:29 into the first when he found some space in the slot and took a pretty feed from behind the Pittsburgh ned by Jakub Voracek to pump a shot by Murray.
The Penguins replied with two goals in a 4:45 span in the second for the first lead change of the series. Bryan Rust beat Neuvirth with a wrap around 12 minutes into the second for his ninth career goal in a potential elimination game. Guentzel then took a feed from Crosby and slipped it between Neuvirth’s legs to put Pittsburgh in front.
The Flyers, for the first time since Game 2, responded. Some sloppy play by Pittsburgh’s top power-play unit led to a turnover and a rush the other way that ended with Filppula sneaking a bouncing puck through Murray’s five-hole to knot the score and two and produce actual late tension heading into the third, a rarity.
NOTES: Penguins F Patric Hornqvist missed his second straight game due to an upper-body injury. Hornqvist did skate earlier Friday and remains day-to-day. … Malkin missed the final 4 minutes of the first period after Philadelphia’s Jori Lehtera fell on it when the two got tangled in the corner. Malkin returned to start the second period. … The Penguins were 0 for 5 on the power play. The Flyers were 0 for 1.
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Crosby leads Penguins past Flyers for 3-1 lead in playoffs
By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sidney Crosby scored his fifth goal of the series and became the Pittsburgh Penguins’ career postseason points leader in a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
The Penguins lead the first-round playoff series 3-1 as its shifts to Pittsburgh for Game 5.
Matt Murray stopped 26 shots for his second shutout of the series and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins are a win away from playing in the second round for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons.
Crosby scored in the second period for a 4-0 lead and passed Pittsburgh owner and Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux for most playoff points with 173. Crosby and the Penguins followed a 7-0 Game 1 win and a 5-1 Game 3 victory with another dominant outing.
The Flyers were already on their second goalie by the time Crosby scored. The Penguins chased Brian Elliott early in the period after the maligned goalie allowed his 14th goal of the series. Michal Neuvirth relived Elliott and it didn’t matter. Neuvirth lost track of the puck behind the net and had his head turned to the right when Crosby found it and snapped it under the goalie’s left skate.
The Flyers were confused. The Penguins were composed.
And it so it goes in Philly, the Flyers are on the brink of another empty season without the Stanley Cup.
Game 5 is Friday.
Both teams played without key cogs in their lineup: Sean Couturier (who had career highs with 31 goals and 76 points) was injured Tuesday at practice in a vicious collision with teammate Radko Gudas; the Pens played without top-line forward Patric Hornqvist because of an undisclosed injury.
Couturier, who had a goal and three points in the series, was missed.
“He’s been playing a lot of minutes for us. He plays every situation,” Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. “He brings a lot to this team.”
Giroux, who scored 102 points during the season, has not scored a posteason goal since 2014.
The Flyers pulled out all their good-luck charms.
The national champion Villanova Wildcats were in the house and star guard Phil Booth screamed “Are you ready for some hockey?”
Flyers fans heard the usual stirring rendition of “God Bless America,” live by Lauren Hart and on video by the late Kate Smith. The song has been a rallying anthem for the Flyers since Smith began singing it in the mid 1970s. Hart started the song, then looked up to the big screen and passed it off to Smith. They finished in a split-screen duet.
Once the pageantry settled down, the Penguins poured it on.
Crosby’s on-point pass on the power play led to Evgeni Malkin’s third goal of the playoff just 4:33 into the game. Phil Kessel scored his first of the postseason midway through the period. Kris Letang made it 3-0 in the second and that was all for Elliott.
Riley Sheahan made it 5-0 late in the third.
Murray was solid again, and stoned Travis Konency on a breakaway out of the penalty box in the second that had the second-year center slam his stick on the ice in anger.
NOTES: Couturier was named a Selke Trophy finalist as the league’s best defensive forward. … 2018 Olympic hockey gold medalists Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando hosted a clinic and helped donate equipment on behalf of a volunteer effort at the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation. Snider was the Flyers founder and chairman until his death in 2016. … Crosby scored on all three goalies the Flyers have used in the series.

Crosby scores goal, leads Penguins to 5-1 Game 3 over Flyers
By DAN GELSTON, AP Sports Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists and Matt Murray stopped 26 shots to help the Pittsburgh Penguins silence a raucous Philadelphia crowd and beat the Flyers 5-1 on Sunday to take a 2-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Two of the so-called fiercest rivals in the NHL have provided three lopsided games: Pittsburgh’s 7-0 win in Game 1 and Philadelphia’s 5-1 victory in Game 2 could about qualify as nail-bitters in this series.
Game 3 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
Crosby scored his fourth goal of the series in the first period, and Derick Brassard, Evgeni Malkin and Brian Dumoulin scored in the second to make it 4-0. Malkin and Dumoulin scored 5 seconds apart.
Justin Schultz made it 5-1 in the third on Pittsburgh’s third power-play goal of the game.
Brian Elliott, yanked in Game 1, had another rough outing and might need to borrow fellow Wells Fargo Center tenant Joel Embiid’s black mask to have a better look at the puck.
The Flyers haven’t won a playoff series since 2012 and pulled out all the theatrical stops in their return to the postseason after a one-year absence. Light-up bracelets flickered in the darkened arena and another packed house roared “Crosby sucks! Crosby sucks!”
Here’s the thing Philly fans haven’t realized, he really doesn’t — and especially not against the Flyers.
Crosby, who has 93 points in 63 career regular-season games against Philly, shut up the orange-and-black die-hards with a wraparound goal off a turnover midway through the first.
Crosby had a hat trick in Game 1 and the three-time Stanley Cup champion showed no sign of easing up.
Flyers fans even stuck photos of the hated Crosby inside the urinals throughout the arena that had to guarantee they were more on target with their shots than anyone on the home team’s roster.
The Flyers ran a video package full of bloody fights, big goals and memorable moments between the teams through the years with a “Bitter Rivals” caption. The Penguins could have just looked in their reflection from the 2016 and 2017 Cups and shrugged off the idea the Flyers are in their league.
Brassard scored on the power play just 2:48 into the second. Then came back-to-back stunning goals that put the icing on the urinal cake: Malkin scored on a one-timer and Dumoulin off the faceoff beat Elliott through the five-hole for a 4-0 lead. Crosby had both assists, naturally.
At that point, each team had 12 shots.
The Flyers, who played more like the team that lost 10 straight games over November-December, had no shot at pulling off the comeback. Travis Sanheim scored late in the third for the Flyers’ lone goal.
Notes: Flyers great Bobby Clarke was at the game. So was former Flyers captain Peter Forsberg. … Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons was in the house. The Sixers have won 17 straight games. Fans started chanting “Trust the Process!” as the game turned into a rout. … Philadelphia’s 22 wins at home during the regular season were the fewest of any team in the NHL playoffs.
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Flyers beat Penguins 5-1 in Game 2 to tie series
By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) — His team embarrassed by the defending Stanley Cup champions in a lopsided playoff-opening loss, Philadelphia Flyers coach Dave Hakstol could have panicked. Instead, he doubled down.
No switching up the lines. No swapping the goaltenders. Nothing. Hakstol didn’t think changes were necessary. As ugly as getting blown out by Pittsburgh in Game 1 looked, it felt even worse. That was motivation enough. No personnel changes necessary.
“It was pretty tough for us to walk out of the rink a couple nights ago,” Hakstol said. “That wasn’t us.”
This was.
Sean Couturier had a goal and two assists, Brian Elliott stopped 34 shots and Flyers cooled off the Penguins 5-1 on Friday night to even the first-round series at a game apiece.
“Said it coming in, nobody is really giving us a serious chance in this series,” Hakstol said. “I don’t know if anybody still will. I do know this, we’ve got it down to a five-game series and we introduced ourselves into this series tonight.”
Shayne Gostisbehere, Travis Konecny, Andrew McDonald and Nolan Patrick also scored for the Flyers. Two nights after getting crushed 7-0, Philadelphia responded by keeping Pittsburgh stars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in check and taking advantage of what few chances it produced against Matt Murray to beat the Penguins for the first time this season.
“For all the doubters out there, there you go,” Flyers forward Claude Giroux said.
Game 3 is Sunday in Philadelphia.
Patric Hornqvist scored Pittsburgh’s lone goal with just over 5 minutes left to avoid the shutout, but the Penguins looked ordinary for long stretches after looking unstoppable in the opener.
Pittsburgh outshot the Flyers 35-20, a number that didn’t include a pair of shots that hit the post early or Crosby fanning on a wide-open net in the waning seconds of the second period. Elliott, pulled in the middle of the second period in Game 1, also stoned Crosby on a breakaway earlier in the second.
“You always look back and there are the ‘what ifs’ but that happens sometimes,” Crosby said. “We just have to stay with it. That’s the way the playoffs work.”
Matt Murray’s shutout streak dating to the 2017 Stanley Cup finals ended at 225:49 when Gostisbehere scored on the power play late in the first period. Murray finished with 15 saves to lose for just the third time in 17 home playoff starts in his career.
The Flyers struggled to sustain pressure on Murray but took advantage of what few opportunities they created. Philadelphia went on the power play late in the first period when Pittsburgh’s Zach Aston-Reese was called for boarding and the Flyers — who didn’t even manage a shot on net during four power plays in Game 1 — needed just one to take the lead.
Gostisbehere sent a shot from the point that made its way through a Patrick screen, between Murray’s legs and into the net with 37 seconds left in the opening period to end the fourth-longest playoff shutout streak since 1990.
It didn’t take the Flyers nearly as long to beat Murray again. Less than two minutes actually.
Murray actually managed to get his right pad on Couturier’s shot from in front but the puck popped up, caromed off Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang and into the net 47 seconds into the second.
The Penguins began pressing but Elliott responded. Crosby broke in alone just past the game’s midway point but Elliott’s glove swallowed up the Pittsburgh captain’s backhand attempt. Late in the second, Crosby needed to simply redirect the puck into the net while standing at the right post. Instead, it skittered straight across the goal mouth and out of harm’s way. Crosby smashed his stick over the crossbar in frustration.
“If I find a way to put that one in, it’s 2-1, it’s a different game,” Crosby said. “So, that one and the breakaway was the big turning point in the game.”
When Konecny held off Chad Ruhwedel and chipped the puck over Murray’s glove 1:21 into the third the Flyers had control. Just over 18 minutes later they had their first victory Pittsburgh in 383 days to go home with the series even.
“It was a little weird last game,” Elliot said. “I think this game we really came out and everybody played their role really well. We played a great team game.”
NOTES: Letang went to the dressing room for the majority of the second period after Giroux slammed into him just seconds after Crosby and Giroux collided. Giroux was not called for a penalty and Letang returned for the third period. … Pittsburgh went 0 for 4 on the power play. The Flyers were 2 for 3. … Amanda Kessel, a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. women’s hockey team at the 2018 Olympics and the younger sister of Penguins forward Phil Kessel, led the sellout crowd at PPG Paints Arena in a “Let’s Go Pens” chant before the opening faceoff.
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