Stop me if you've heard this before, but the Penguins blew a lead in the final seconds of regulation and ultimately lost to the Flyers in overtime.
No, this isn't a recap of last month's Stadium Series game, it happened again Sunday night at PPG Paints Arena. James van Riemsdyk scored the equalizer for the Flyers with 19 seconds remaining in the game on a nightmare four-on-two chance:
... and Sean Couturier scored with just four seconds left in the overtime period to give the Flyers a 2-1 win:
What are the odds that the Penguins could lose two games to the Flyers in such a similar manner? Not very high, apparently.
Flyers are first team in NHL history to defeat the same team twice in the same season via a game-tying goal in the final 30 seconds of regulation time.
— wayne fish (@waynefish1) March 18, 2019
Bryan Rust was in the lineup Sunday for his first full game since that Stadium Series loss. He sat staring straight ahead, stone-faced, in his locker stall, after speaking to reporters.
"We played 59 great minutes," he said. "Even well in overtime, most overtime minutes. We couldn't get enough past (Carter Hart), and they capitalized on their chances."
Hart, who was watching from the bench the last time the Flyers rallied like this against the Penguins, was absolutely the MVP of the game for his team. The 20-year-old rookie recorded 41 saves, and seemed to grow more confident as the game went on.
The Penguins were the dominant team through two periods. They outshot the Flyers 26-13, with the attempt numbers just as lopsided at 47-25. Hart kept his team in the game, and the Flyers rallied in front of him to capitalize late, late in the third period.
Mike Sullivan pointed out the work of his team's defense as a factor in the Flyers' game-tying goal.
"Tonight we needed to defend harder," he said. "We didn't have numbers back, and we should have had numbers back. The other goal in the outdoor game was a totally different scenario. They got some puck luck on that one."
After the overtime loss, the Penguins fall to 5-10 in overtime this season, the third-most overtime losses in the Eastern Conference. That's a lot of points left on the table in a tight playoff race. That could ultimately be the difference between home-ice advantage or starting the first round on the road.
With nine games remaining, the margin for error is slim if the Penguins would like to improve their place in the standings before the postseason.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THREE STARS
My curtain calls go to …
1. Carter Hart
Flyers goaltender
The 20-year-old rookie goaltender was the MVP of the game with 41 saves. The Penguins had a lot of quality chances, and Hart stood on his head.
2. Sean Couturier
Flyers center
The game-winning goal in the final seconds of the extra frame. He had the secondary assist on the game-tying goal, too.
3. James van Riemsdyk
Flyers left wing
I was torn between van Riemsdyk and Teddy Blueger for this one, but JVR gets the edge because it led to a win.
THE GOOD
Whether or not you go with the "eye test" or the supporting advanced analytics, the Penguins' third line of Dominik Simon, Nick Bjugstad, and Patric Hornqvist was dominant.
They finished with a combined Corsi For percentage of 59.26. In the first two periods, they were on the ice for 14 attempts for and three against, including two high-danger attempts for and none against. They saw nine shots on goal for, and two against.
On this play, Simon recovers the puck after a failed pass attempt by Marcus Pettersson. Simon passes it to Bjugstad who feeds it to Hornqvist, but Hart came up big with a sliding stop:
"It's been like two games in a row now we have some glorious chances, myself too, to find the back of the net. And we couldn't get it up and over his pads," Hornqvist said after the game. "Some nights it doesn't go in, but if you keep going there and keep creating those good chances, they're going to come for us."
Simon is obviously where he belongs in the bottom six, and this trio is working well together.
THE BAD
Phil Kessel didn't have the greatest of games.
His five-on-five play wasn't bad, and he had a nice move for the secondary assist on the Penguins' only goal of the game. It was his decision-making on the power play that suffered.
Midway through a man advantage in the third period, Kessel lost the puck to Couturier. He immediately responded with a slash on Couturier, costing the Penguins the remainder of the power play:
Later in the period, on another power play, he did this:
It's not even totally clear if that's just a bad pass that went way off target, or a bad attempt at a bank for a dump for some reason, but it led to an easy clear for the Flyers. You can see Kessel throw his hands up in frustration as he skates back to the bench.
Kessel did lead the Penguins with a great nine shot attempts in the game -- six of which made it to Hart -- and many of them were in close range. His work on the man advantage left much to be desired.
THE PLAY
Ivan Provorov didn't earn a point in the game, but his move to prevent an empty net goal by the Penguins kept the game within reach for the Flyers.
“I had no doubt in my mind,” Provorov said of his play afterwards. “At that point, you’re giving everything you have and for the team a lot of guys did that tonight.”
"It saved the game," Flyers interim head coach Scott Gordon said. "He saved the game. I don't know where he was on his shift, but it looked like that guy had a little more jump in his step and was able to get himself in position to be able to swipe that so they couldn't get an opportunity."
THE CALL
We had a rare double review in the second period.
Claude Giroux believed he scored on the power play, but the call on the ice was no goal due to goaltender interference. The Flyers challenged the ruling, and the call was changed to good goal:
"I think we were pretty surprised that it wasn't a goaltender interference," Matt Cullen remarked after the game. "You just never really know on those. Nobody has a real strong read on what is and isn't goaltender interference."
Then, the Penguins challenged that the play was offside. After another review, it was determined that it was pretty blatantly offside, and the goal call was reversed again:
"We knew it was offside, so regardless of what happened we were going to challenge it," said Sullivan.
Two challenges, both successful. Not something you see too often. It killed any momentum the Flyers had for the time being.
THE OTHER SIDE
With the win, the Flyers are now six points and two spots out of the final wild card spot. If you ask them, they're very much still in the hunt.
"We just want to take things one game at a time here and make sure we're pushing to get in the playoffs," Hart said after his team's win. "That's our end goal, and we all want to get there. We just have to do it one game at a time."
The Flyers improved to 35-29-8 and 6-3-1 in their previous 10 games. They'll be back in action Tuesday at home against the team three points ahead of them in the wild card race, the Canadiens.
THE DATA
• Sunday marked 16,000 days since the Flyers last won a Stanley Cup. Penguins fans in the rebuilding reminded them of the fact with chants and signs.
• The Penguins' 10 overtime losses this season are the third-most in the Eastern Conference.
• The Penguins were credited with 10 giveaways, twice as many as the Flyers' five.
• Kessel played in his 319th consecutive game with the Penguins, tying Craig Adams for the franchise record. He's played in 765 consecutive games overall.
• Pettersson recorded his 20th assist of the season, the second-most in the league among rookie defensemen.
THE INJURIES
• Evgeni Malkin, forward, missed his first game and is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
• Zach Aston-Reese, forward, missed his fourth game with a hip injury and is now out “longer term.”
• Kris Letang, defenseman, missed his 11th game with an upper body injury.
• Olli Maatta, defenseman, has a separated left shoulder sustained Feb. 11. He’s on IR.
• Chad Ruhwedel, defenseman, missed his tenth game with an upper-body injury.
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
McCann - Crosby - Guentzel
Rust - Blueger - Kessel
Simon - Bjugstad - Hornqvist
Blandisi - Cullen - Wilson
Dumoulin- Trotman
Johnson - Schultz
Pettersson - Gudbranson
• And for Gordon's Flyers:
Lindblom - Couturier - Voracek
van Riemsdyk - Patrick - Giroux
Raffl - Laughton - Konecny
Varone - Knight - Hartman
Provorov - Sanheim
Gostisbehere - Myers
Hagg - Gudas
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled for a travel day on Monday as the team heads to Raleigh. They'll have an 11:30 a.m. morning skate on Tuesday before playing the Hurricanes that night at 7 p.m. The team will be off Wednesday, then have another skate and game in Nashville on Thursday. Bradford will take those games.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our team page for everything.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Penguins vs. Flyers, PPG Paints Arena, March 17, 2019 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS