[Drew]

DOWN AND OUT?

(Pittsburgh, PA) – Maxime Talbot scored midway through in the third period to break a tie, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-2 victory and two games to none lead over the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals at Mellon Arena on Sunday night.

Talbot, returning from a three-game absence due to a foot injury, got open in the slot and fired the puck past Martin Biron at 8:51 of the final frame after Philadelphia turned the puck over in its own zone. Jordan Staal’s empty-net goal capped the scoring.

The series now shifts to the Wachovia Center, where the Flyers are 4-1, for games three and four on Tuesday and Thursday night.

“We've played in a Game 7 where if you lose, you go home,” said Biron. “Game 3 isn't like that, but it's as close as it's going to get. I think we played pretty good, but we can play better. It's all about desperation and urgency.”

“They are playing some pretty good hockey, but I still feel that we have another gear to go,” added Jeff Carter. “You never want to be down 2-0, but we’re going back to our rink and we’ve played [well] there.”

Already down one top defenseman due to a blood clot in Kimmo Timonen’s left foot, the Flyers lost Braydon Coburn when he was hit in the face with a deflected puck less than two minutes into the game. Coburn was able to skate to the locker room while holding a towel to his face to stop the bleeding, but did not return.

He is still a possibility for Game 3, however.

“My left eye is swollen shut right now,” he said. “I will keep the ice on it and get the swelling down and see what happens [Monday].”

Special teams was the name of the game in the first two periods, as the Flyers and Penguins combined for three power play goals and one shorthanded tally.

Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead on Sidney Crosby’s power play goal, which deflected inside the near post off of the shin of Lasse Kukkonen at 10:48.

The Flyers tied it on Jeff Carter’s man advantage goal in the second period when Joffrey Lupul found him alone in front of the net for a quick one-timer at 5:46, but the Penguins went ahead once again later on.

With Derian Hatcher in the box on a questionable hooking call, Marian Hossa knocked in his sixth goal of the playoffs with a backhander on a puck that was bouncing around in the slot. Hatcher was clearly upset with the penalty, in which it appeared he played Evgeni Malkin perfectly while the skillful center was trying to get around the big defenseman.

“I'd just like to see some consistency. We got a couple of stars on our team too,” said Stevens of the call. “Derian Hatcher been around the league a long time; he knows how to defend. [Malkin] was halfway bent over. He's a big man, but he was trying to cut to the net.”

Mike Richards scored his third goal of the series to tie it up at the second break, though, when he intercepted a pass intended for Sergei Gonchar and found the top corner on a breakaway with Hatcher again serving a minor penalty. Just 24 seconds were left in the second when Richards scored.

That was all Philadelphia would put by Marc-Andre Fleury, however.

Stevens was happy with the defense’s effort after Coburn went out early.

“I thought the group of five did a heck of a job. I thought they played big minutes and I thought we got big contributions from all of them,” he said.

What he wasn’t pleased with was the game-winning goal.

“That turnover can’t happen,” said the head coach.

Fleury recorded his 10th win in 11 decisions with 30 saves, while Biron stopped 34.

The Flyers are just 2-10 all-time when trailing a series two games to none, but one of those wins was against Pittsburgh in the second round in 2000. After dropping the first two games at home in that series, the Flyers reeled off four straight wins including the infamous five-overtime game.

FLYERS NOTES
Stevens made one change to the lineup, inserting Steve Downie for Patrick Thoresen. … The Flyers are 7-7 all-time in the conference finals. … R.J. Umberger’s six-game point streak came to an end. … The Flyers are 1-3 when game is tied after two periods; 2-4 when the opponent scores first; and 4-5 on the road. … The Penguins have now won 15 consecutive home games, including all seven in the playoffs. … Richards’ goal was the first shorthanded goal allowed by Penguins in playoffs, and the Flyers’ second, both by Richards.

Coach Stevens post-game press conference - http://cbs3.com/video/?id=56905@kyw.dayport.com.

[Jlg-28]

we played a little better, but still not good enough, losing another top d-man hurts as well. if we have any chance of makin this a series they need to come home and play flyers hockey, and we need more then Richards getting goals as well

[Drew]

Penguins are better. Period.

However, everyone said the Capitals and Habs were better too. Grit and determination sometimes wins over talent. I'm still thinking we can make this a series. That is, if the officiating removes their yellow and black goggles.

With that being said, here is the letter my brother wrote to his ex-girlfriend who was in attendance last night.

Yes, this morning is an unpleasant one in Philly (not to mention a cold one with the 40 degree weather and 60mph wind gusts … isn’t this May?). However, all is not lost … yet. If you think that’s the best the Flyers can play then you definitely need to brush up on your hockey watching. I’m not making any excuses at all but losing our top two defensemen (one of which is our best player) doesn’t help the cause. Not to mention the fact that I couldn’t help but notice last night and again in this morning’s box score that the Flyers had only 3 PPs (none in the 3rd period) to the Pens 6. Interesting. And I’m still trying to figure out how you can hook a guy when he is in front of you (as was the “penalty” on the Hatcher vs. Malkin).

With all of the camouflage hats, mustaches and mullets (and femullets) in the crowd last night, I thought it’d be pretty easy to pick you out of the stands with your make-up on and Louis V … but you got no TV love. At times when they panned to the crowd I didn’t know if it was an NHL game or a 1980’s Rush concert. True story.

I think I saw some wolf and unicorn shirts in the mix too last night.