Flyers End Penguins Win Streak, Crosby’s Still Alive
Added on Dec 15, 2010 by J Merrill in
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The Pittsburgh Penguins’ winning streak is over, but the Sidney Crosby show continued and he was kept his point-scoring streak alive. The Flyers Scott Hartnell put the puck in at 9:54 of the third period to give the Flyers the 3-2 win, and bring the Penguins’ 12 game winning streak to a grinding halt. Hartnell said after the game that playing the Penguins is always a tough win, but he felt they did what they needed to do. He said “It’s the battle of Pennsylvania. It was a big measuring game. It was intense and we played well enough to win.”
The Penguins were elated to have Center Evgeni Malkin back in the line up after he missed four games with a knee injury. Malkin was able to find the twine twice in the game, and he know has ten for the season. The good news for Crosby is that he assisted on both of Malkins goals, and he has now extended his point streak to 19 games. He has 20 goals and 18 assists in matching his career-long streak from Oct. 6-Nov. 17, 2007. Crosby has 62 points (26 goals, 36 assists) in 36 career games against Philadelphia. Crosby wants to put this game behind him, and can’t wait to get back on the ice. He said after the game, “You never like losing and just because we won however many we won doesn’t change that feeling, and I don’t think it ever will. You go out there and you work hard and you have an objective in mind to win a game and you don’t…so no, it’s not a good feeling. Luckily for us we have a game Wednesday night, so we can look to respond.”
The game felt like a play off game with 19,824 in attendance, and the arena was electric. The Penguins hadn’t lost since a 3-2 overtime defeat to the New York Rangers on Nov. 15, and the Penguins knew it would be a tough game. Penguins coach Dan Bylsma didn’t think his team stayed focused. He said “It doesn’t matter how many you win, losing is not where you want to be. We’re disappointed in the first period in particular. Philadelphia dictated the pace.” He continued by talking about the mistakes they made, and where he thought the game went wrong. He said “We got to a point where we draw even, and we spent a lot of energy killing penalties against dangerous guys. It also took our team away from trying to get to the offensive zone and mount any kind of pressure. It took away from us in the third period.”
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette gave the start to goaltender Brian Boucher, who stopped 21 of 23 shots to move to 5-0-1 in his past six games. Boucher had turned away 66 of 68 shots in wins over Toronto and Boston. Laviolette says he the team has one goal, and its to be the best. “We talk about trying to be the best in the league, and tonight was one of those opportunities where we could do it ourselves and didn’t have to have help. It puts you where you want to be, but you can enjoy it for about three minutes and move on to start thinking about the next game.” The Flyers hung on for the win and moved to a league-best 8-1-1 in their division, and beat the Penguins for the third time this season.
The Philadelphia Flyers (20-7-5,45pts), who are now 1st in Atlantic Division, will face Montreal(18-10-2, 38pts) at the Bell Centre on Wednesday. The Pittsburgh Penguins (21-9-2,44pts), who are 2nd in Atlantic Division, will face the New York Rangers (18-13-1, 37pts) on Wednesday at home.
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