Home Sweet Powerplay. 
PhiladelphiaFlyers.com's report....
(Philadelphia, PA) – It was home-sweet-home as the Flyers tallied four power-play goals on their way to a 5-2 win over the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins in front of a sellout crowd at the Wachovia Center on Saturday night.
Defenseman Kimmo Timonen recorded a goal, his first as a Flyer, and three assists while Danny Briere added a goal and two helpers to lead the team to its fifth straight win on home ice, improving their mark to 5-0-0.
Mike Knuble and Danny Briere celebrate Knuble's first period power play goal in a 5-2 win over the Penguins. (Getty Images)
The Flyers came charging out of the gate in first period, which has been their Achilles heel early in the season, however tonight was a different story as Timonen kicked off the scoring with a power-play goal 1:31 seconds into the frame.
“I don’t think I changed anything from the previous games,” said Timonen. “The last five, six games I probably hit the post four times, so it could easily be four goals right there. Sometimes it’s hard, it’s not your day and today it just went in. You just have to work hard, and you’re going to get some lucky breaks.”
On the very next man advantage, Mike Knuble battled in front and knocked in his fifth goal of the year to give the squad a 2-0 lead by the end of the opening period, which the Flyers out shot the Pens 10 to 7.
Joffrey Lupul, who also added an assist on the night, began the second frame with his sixth goal of the year, giving the Flyers their third power-play goal of the night.
The Penguins, however, rallied back to score the next two goals, which included a power-play goal from Sergei Gonchar with less than one second remaining in the period to cut the Pens deficit to one goal entering the third period.
Starting every game at home thus far, Martin Biron stopped 29 of 31 shots from Pittsburgh, including all nine chances in the third period, to give him a .971 save percentage and even 1.00 goals-against average at home.
Briere and Scott Hartnell (empty net) added insurance goals, while Mike Richards continued his strong play by recording three assists on the night.
Perhaps even more impressive than the Flyers power play was their penalty-killing unit, stopping five of the seven chances from the Penguins, including a four minute power play midway through the first period in which they had a two-man advantage for a short period of time.
“Our penalty killing has really been coming. There has been a sense of urgency, guys blocking shots, there is more synergy with the pressure on the puck,” commented Head Coach John Stevens. “Certainly on the power play you just love to see guys willing to shoot the puck, take advantages. I thought those guys did a tremendous job of one, getting net presence and two, getting pucks to the net.”
“I think overall in the season we’ve done a pretty good job,” added Timonen. “Power plays, penalty killing, that’s a big part of the game and hopefully we’ll continue to do the same things.”
Evgeni Malkin scored a goal and an assist and Sidney Crosby added an assist on Malkin’s goal to extend his scoring streak to 16 games.
With the win, the Flyers improve their mark to 4-2 against division opponents this year and, after losing eight consecutive games to the Penguins, the Flyers have now won the first two meetings in a span of four days to remain in first place in the Atlantic with a 10-6-0 record and 20 points.
The team will look to continue its home dominance when they face off against the New York Islanders on Monday night at the Wachovia Center (7:00 p.m. Comcast SportsNet and 610 WIP).
FLYERS NOTES
The last time the Flyers have scored four power-play goals in a single game was October 28, 2005 in an 8-6 loss at Carolina… Richards’ three assists marked his fourth multiple-point game on the season and sixth game in his last seven that he has registered a point... Knuble leads the Flyers on the power-play and has scored four of his five goals on the man advantage… Since joining the Flyers, Timonen has logged over 21 minutes of time-on-ice per game... Hartnell’s empty-net goal was his first as a Flyer.
-Andy Geleff
andy@flyershive.com