[Rex]

6.5 SECONDS SPELL DOOM

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and added an assist in leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Friday night at Mellon Arena.

With the game tied 2-2 in the closing seconds of the first period, Malkin got free on the blue line and took a pass from Ryan Whitney before charging in on net. His wrist shot beat Martin Biron with 6.5 seconds left on the clock for what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

Malkin scored the only goal in the game the rest of the way, getting behind the Flyers’ defense and ripping a slap shot past Biron at 4:50 of the second period with Pittsburgh shorthanded.

Game 2 is on Sunday night in Pittsburgh (7:30 p.m., Versus).

For the third straight series in the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Flyers dropped the first game of a series on the road. They are 13-17 all-time when that happens, including two wins this year over Washington and Montreal.

In a wild first period, Petr Sykora’s backhanded gave the Penguins the lead, but Mike Richards tallied twice to put Philadelphia ahead. Richards’ wraparound goal went in off of Marc-Andre Fleury at 8:30 to tie the score, and then he found a loose puck in front of the net and fired it in at 12:50 for his sixth goal of the playoffs.

Pittsburgh native R.J. Umberger, who had a team-high eight goals in the second round victory over Montreal, assisted on both scores by Richards.

Marian Hossa took advantage of a turnover by Biron along the boards, and quickly centered the puck where Sidney Crosby tipped it in at 14:11 to tie the game at 2-2 before Malkin’s backbreaker.

“I thought we had the start we wanted,” said head coach John Stevens. “We had the shots on net; we had the lead. We just didn't manage a puck as a group of five on the ice. Our support got too far away.”

Philadelphia tried getting back into the game in the third period, but a deflection attempt by Scott Hartnell hit the cross bar, and Jeff Carter had the puck bounce over the back of his stick while looking at an open net.

The Flyers outshot the Penguins for the game, 28-21.

The Penguins, 9-1 in the playoffs, improved to a perfect 6-0 at home and 14 straight overall counting the regular season. The Flyers fell to 4-4 in road games.

FLYERS NOTES
The Flyers are 7-7 all-time in the conference finals. … In Kimmo Timonen’s absence, Jaroslav Modry was reinserted back into the lineup for the first time since Game 5 against Washington in the first round. Modry was even in 17:01 of ice time. … Malkin leads the Penguins with 17 points in the playoffs. … The Philadelphia Phantoms were eliminated by the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Friday night in the second round of the AHL playoffs.

[Jlg-28]

I don't think we played all that bad, but could have been better, the turnovers killed us however I think we can bounce back on sunday and even this series up. We just need to play smarter with the puck and even smarter without it.

[MikeyB99]

We need to not turn the puck over when their superstars are on the ice... Malkin, Crosby, Hossa, and Sykora are the only people who can do anything.. we need to hold them down... after them, I think were the better team

[Skeeter]

I actually thought the score didn't represent the way we played at all. The first goal we gave up was there best on if the night. Crosby's goal shouldn't have happened. Biron mishandled the puck and it cost us. Both of Malkin's goals were tough. 6.5 sec. till the end of the period and we go into the locker room with the score even and it is a different game the rest of the way. His second goal was after Richards rocked him into the next week. The problem was he was still trying to get back into the play and oops there goes the puck into the net.

This will be a tough series because I think the Pens are a better team than either the Caps or Habs. But they can be had. We need to continue to play like we did in the first period and we will be fine. It really was just a couple of mistakes and they capitalized on them.

I did think we missed Kimmo but after putting in a game I think Stevens now will be able to tinker with the defensive pairings for tomorrow nights game and we will have a much better defensive game.

This series will go back to Philly tied at one game a piece and then we get take the advantage.

[Drew]

Good post, Skeeter. I think very similar. Stevens will have had enough time to analyze what went wrong in game 1 (mainly stupid errors) and I think we'll see a more prepared Flyers team this evening. Hopefully with a 1-1 series when the final buzzer sounds.