PHILADELPHIA -- Over the past 14 years, Sidney Crosby and the Penguins have been plenty good in this building. After Monday, you can add lucky too.
Thanks in part to one very fortuitous bounce and one quick whistle (see The Call), the Penguins were able to snap a four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. After seeing a handful of recent good efforts go unrewarded, the Penguins will gladly take any help, even if it was, as Matt Murray said, "not pretty."
See, the Flyers held a decided 51-28 edge in shots and a commanding 62-38 advantage in Corsi For percentage. However, it would be a folly to suggest that the Penguins didn't somehow deserve the 'W.'
Despite an injury to Olli Maatta that left them down to five defensemen and a five-minute major penalty to kill off to finish the third period after Evgeni Malkin's vicious high stick, the Penguins still managed to grind out a hard-fought victory in this latest chapter of the Battle of Pennsylvania. That's thanks to Murray.
While Flyers rookie Carter Hart received all the pre-game hype, Murray -- the two-time Stanley Cup champion -- was the better goalie. "He was unbelievable," Crosby said of Murray, who was making his first start in six days after suffering an upper body injury.
"Tonight was definitely not an easy game, but we battled and got it done," said Murray, who made a career-high 50 saves on 51 shots to snap a personal two-game losing streak. It was just his third win in his last seven starts following a run of nine straight wins. As he was during that streak, Murray was unflappable again on Monday.
This first-period stop on Oskar Lindblom to thwart a 2-on-1 may have been his best ...
... but it was hardly his last.
That's because the Flyers put up a whopping 28 shots on goal in the second period to establish a new record in the organization's 52-year history. And Murray stopped each and every one of them. Not that he was counting.
"When you're out there, you don't really think about that," he said. "Just try to stop the puck."
Murray's 50-save performance topped his previous best, a 47-save effort against the Capitals in the second-round playoff series in 2016. Monday's game was just the second time that Murray has been required to stop 40-plus shots in a game this season.
"He was great, especially in the second period," said Mike Sullivan. "That's when the game got away from us a little bit. We couldn't get out of our end zone. It was a long-change period. Every time we put the puck in, it seemed like we were changing, and we couldn't turn the tide there in the second period. That's really where the shot discrepancy was in that 20 minutes and Matt was really good."
So too was the defense in front of Murray. With Maatta sidelined, the Penguins were forced to rotate five defensemen, but they were able to do a good job of keeping the Flyers to the perimeter.
“All our defensemen stepped up and played a huge role in this win,” said Kris Letang.
And when shots did get through, Murray smothered them without giving up many rebounds.
“I thought our defensemen battled hard in front of him, but Matt was really good,” Sullivan said. “Matt was really good. He made some big saves for us. That’s the type of game that he’s capable of.”
The Penguins spotted their goalie an early 1-0 lead when Crosby scored his 24th of the season at 8:19 of the first on a goal that, let's face it, will not make any of his highlight videos:
While the goal was a lucky break -- Travis Sanheim's pass hit the shin pad of Bryan Rust and caromed right to Crosby all alone at the right side of the net where he stuffed it in before Hart knew what happened -- it was also the result of some hard work on the forecheck by Rust, Crosby and Jake Guentzel.
Of course, Crosby doesn't need much luck and certainly not against the Flyers, a team that he has tormented and toyed with over the years.
According to team historian Bob Grove, the Penguins had just 16 wins in Philadelphia from 1967 to 2005. That includes the Flyers' 42-game unbeaten streak against their cross-state rivals from Feb. 7, 1974 to Feb. 3, 1989. Since Crosby's arrival, the Penguins have now won 21 times.
In 65 games against the Flyers, Crosby now has 95 points, including 40 goals. Forty-four of those 95 points have come at the corner of Broad and Pattison in South Philadelphia.
Sidney Crosby became the seventh player in NHL history to score at least 40 goals against the Flyers, his highest total against any team. #NHLStats #PITvsPHI pic.twitter.com/m9RONX3ABl
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 12, 2019
The Penguins are now 16-6-2 in their last 24 regular-season games in Philadelphia, where they'll play again next weekend across the parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field in a Stadium Series game.
As nice as that is though, Crosby has his sights set on something much more important: Making the playoffs. With 65 points, the Penguins are still in the second wildcard spot and are just three points ahead of the hard-charging Hurricanes. Crosby said that Monday's win will mean little if the Penguins can't string together strong efforts, beginning with Wednesday night's game against Connor McDavid and the Oilers.
“We’ve got to build off it,” Crosby said. “We all know how important the points are. To get a big win like this on the road, try to take the momentum back home now.”
***premium***
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Matt Murray
Penguins goaltender
50 saves on 51 shots. Need I say more?
2. Sidney Crosby
Penguins center
With a goal and two assists, the captain had his first multi-point game since Feb. 1 vs. the Senators.
3. Kris Letang
Penguins defenseman
His short-handed, empty-net goal with 13 seconds remaining was the 109th of his career, pushing him past Paul Coffey for the most all-time for a Penguins defenseman. Said Letang: "It's cool ... it's not the way you want to do it."
THE INJURIES
• Maatta, defenseman, left the game late in the first period with what appeared to be a left wrist or arm injury after taking a hard hit and falling awkwardly into the boards. Read more here.
• Justin Schultz, defenseman, was a full participant in the morning skate but did not play. He’s been out since Oct. 13 after suffering a fractured leg.
• Zach Aston-Reese, winger, out with a broken left hand, was also a full participant in the skate but didn't play. He’s been out since Jan. 8.
THE GOOD
Even after the in-season trades of Carl Hagelin, Riley Sheahan and Derek Grant, Jacques Martin's penalty killing unit has been consistently good. On Monday, the NHL's 10th-ranked unit had to be at their best.
The Flyers had five power play chances over 10:54 but could muster just one goal on a dozen shots.
Twenty seconds after Malkin's match penalty at 15:06 of the third period, Jake Voraceck put the Flyers on the board to make it 3-1. However, the Penguins were able to kill off the remaining four-plus minutes to seal the victory.
"That penalty kill felt like a long five minutes," said Nick Bjugstad. "Everybody did a good job."
THE BAD
As expected, Sullivan split up his sagging power play by placing Phil Kessel on the second unit. Whether Sullivan will continue with that strategy remains to be seen, but he didn't exactly get an extended look at it on Monday.
The Penguins had just one power-play opportunity and that came after Claude Giroux was called for tripping Tanner Pearson at 9:12 of the first period.
The first unit, which now has Marcus Pettersson joining Letang on the point, handled the first 1:05 of the power play. They had little zone time and zero shots on goal as the Flyers successfully killed it off.
Sullivan's decision to split up the NHL's sixth-ranked power play came in response to Saturday night's game in Tampa Bay when the Lightning's Joe Cirelli scored a short-handed goal, the league-worst 12th that the Penguins have surrendered this season.
THE PLAY
Whether he plays center or right wing, the first line or third, the Penguins acquired Bjugstad for his size, his reach and his ability to score goals. A 24-goal scorer with the Panthers four years ago, Bjugstad had gone five games in black and gold without finding the back of the net. Until the 7:04 mark of Monday's game, that is.
Bjugstad took this drop pass from Malkin at the left dot and fired a wrist shot that beat Hart under the catching glove:
Hart might have wanted that one back, but not Bjugstad. He'll take the puck after scoring his first as a Penguin and in his first game with Malkin as his center. Bjugstad told me he didn't aim his shot, he just wanted to get it away from Ivan Provorov's stick.
"With Malkin out there, he's stepping up left and right," he said. "Just shot that one at the net and tried to get it through (Provorov's) stick and it went in. About time."
Kessel, playing left wing, picked up the secondary assist to snap a four-game pointless drought, his longest under Sullivan. The new-look second line of Bjugstad, Malkin and Kessel was arguably the Penguins' best as the trio had a Corsi For percentage of 60.0 and had 18 chances-for to 12 against.
"We played normal. Not great, but not bad," said Malkin.
Though it remains to be seen how the lines will sort out when Aston-Reese returns, Sullivan seemed to like what he saw from Malkin's line:
THE CALL
In the Penguins' Cup-clinching Game 6 victory over Nashville in 2017, Murray and the Penguins were the beneficiaries of perhaps the worst quick whistle in NHL history.
Obviously, the stakes weren't quite as high on Monday but the Penguins again benefitted from another egregious quick whistle, this one by referee Kyle Rehman.
With the Penguins leading 2-0 and Guentzel in the box for tripping, the Flyers appeared to have pulled to within a goal with just two seconds remaining on their power play and 7:07 remaining in the period. That's when Rehman thought Murray made a glove stop on Travis Konecny's wrist shot from the right circle:
As Murray posed with his glove hand up, the old Patrick Roy Statue of Liberty move, the puck squirted out to the left side of the net where Nolan Patrick put the puck into the yawning cage. However, Rehman had already blown the play dead.
"I got lucky," admitted Murray. "Said thanks afterwards."
Fortunately for the Penguins, the play could not be reviewed or challenged. Needless to say, that did not sit well with the 19,103 in attendance in Philadelphia.
“I guess everybody makes mistakes,” Patrick said.
THE OTHER SIDE
Earlier Monday, Flyers interim coach Scott Gordon had billed this four-point game a de facto playoff game. Well, despite his team's best effort, the loss pushed the Flyers to eight points out of the final wildcard spot.
“It’s a huge game to lose,” said Voracek. “It was a four-point game. Biggest game of the year.”
The Flyers have 26 games to get back into playoff contention but they are likely to miss the playoffs for the fourth time in seven years. With the trade deadline coming up on Feb. 25, the Stadium Series game could be Wayne Simmonds' last as a Flyer. That's if he's not moved sooner.
It was Philadelphia's second loss in the last 11 games and first in regulation since Jan. 12 against the Devils. It also ended Hart’s bid to become the first goalie in NHL history to win nine games in a row before the age of 21. Hart stopped 24 of 27 shots in his first game against the Penguins.
“I’ve got to be better, at the end of the day,” Hart said.
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins will have tomorrow off before hosting the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night at PPG Paints Arena.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Penguins team page for everything.
____________________
Want our latest content at your fingertips? Download the FREE app today:
