Unlucky 13 -- Flyers Defeat Penguins, 3-2

Have you ever been in a hotel or office building elevator wondering why you can't find the button to the 13th floor?

Superstition, my dear readers.

People don't like the #13.

Apparently, the Pittsburgh Penguins don't either.

The Pens had an opportunity to extend their winning streak to 13 games last night at the Wachovia Center against their arch rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers, and had this little matter of first place overall in the NHL standings at-stake as well.

But between letting the Flyers dictate the tempo of the game and not being able to get out of their own way on the path to the penalty box, Pittsburgh fell to the Flyers, 3-2, last night -- their third loss (all by the same count) to Philadelphia in 4 games this season.

Philadlephia came out strong in the first period and was rewarded for it when Penguin killer Claude Giroux scored 12 minutes into the game to make it 1-0.  Giroux did a nice job to finish the play, but the Penguins had their hand in it, too.

First, Pens' netminder Marc-Andre Fleury lost his stick when he came out of the net to play the puck.  Second, the Flyers were able to get Giroux out with Daniel Briere and Scott Hartnell -- their best line of late -- against the Pens' 3rd defensive pairing of Alex Goligoski and Deryk Engelland.  That paid dividends when both blueliners in black and gold failed to take a man and failed to clear a loose puck in front of Fleury before Giroux picked it up and tossed it in.

Pittsburgh evened the score on the power play in the 2nd period when Evgeni Malkin -- playing his first game after missing 4 contests with a sore right knee -- lasered in a shot from the right circle. 

Sidney Crosby got the second assist on Geno's tally, by the way, extending his scoring streak to 19 games, tying a career-high.

The 1-1 tie in the game didn't last long, though, as Nikolai Zherdev gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead on a nice individual effort about 4 minutes later.

Zherdev lead a rush into the Penguins' zone that was either a 2-on-1 or 3-on-2, depending on how you evaluated whether Pens' defenseman Zbynek Michalek was in the play or not.  Primarily, it was Brooks Orpik defending.

Zherdev came down the left wing, backed Orpik in and ultimately got him to leave his feet to try and block Zherdev's effort (whether shot or pass), at which time the Flyer forward quickly pulled up and cut towards the slot.  Rather than dish it to a linemate who was steaming up the right side, however (because Michalek dove back in the play to cut that off), Zherdev just waited a second or two and beat Fleury cleanly to the stick side uncontested.

Pens' assistant coach Todd Rierden -- who works with the team's defensemen -- teaches them that it's okay to leave their feet when necessary.   Generally, Pittsburgh's blueliners do a good job of that. 

But as I've said in this space before, timing and circumstance means everything.

Zherdev showed nice patience on the play, but him scoring with both Orpik and Michalek on the ice says something, doesn't it?   And not just about their play, quite frankly, but about how the Pens' found themselves defending that odd-man rush in the first place.

Geno struck again, though, with an assist by #87, early in the 3rd period on another power-play -- this time a 4-on-3 -- to even the score, but once again, the Penguins weren't able to hold the lead.

Carrot top scored on the power play with about 10 minutes to go to give Philadelphia the 3-2 advantage.  Pittsburgh had several chances to tie the game late in the third on the power play with a pulled netminder, but defenseman Kris Letang missed the net on 2 good one-timer chances from about 45 feet, making the Flyers' lead one they would not relinquish.

And with that, the franchise's second longest winning streak came to an end, as did their run of 7 straight wins on the road -- a streak which itself was tied for the most ever put together by the organization.

The Flower's 11 game winning streak also was snapped.

I hate to give Philadelphia credit -- so I won't -- but I will say that they took the play to the Penguins in this game.  They outshot the Pens 12-7 in the opening frame and, when the game was on the line in the third period, 14-5.  Overall, the shot totals for the game were 37-23.

The Flyers are a strong offensive club, but the Penguins didn't play nearly as well defensively in this one as they had been.  In fact, it was the first time in the last 11 games that they allowed more than 2 goals.

The other thing the Penguins can look in the mirror and find fault with this morning was their penchant for taking penalties at inopportune times -- and sometimes bad penalties, to boot. 

After each of their goals, they took penalties, and there were several times in the game when they took back-to-back penalties.  Then, when Malkin took a terrible penalty in the third period -- the Pens' 6th infraction of the game -- Philadelphia finally capitalized.

"It's a stupid penalty, and my fault," Malkin said of the call.

Sure, giving a talented team like the Flyers that many chances on the man-advantage is playing with fire, but the bigger issue for Pittsburgh last night was that the penalties they were taking killed their momentum and kept them from developing any of their own flow in the game. 

With the defeat, the Flyers leapfrogged the Penguins into first place in the Atlantic Division -- and overall in the NHL -- with 45 points, while the Pens' have 44.  Philadelphia is in action again tonight, as are the Penguins, who return home to The Bird House to host the New York Rangers.

Pittsburgh is undefeated in the second game in back-to-back sets this season, and they generally play good against the Rangers at home, so lets hope they take advantage of the opportunity they have this evening to put last night's defeat in the rear-view mirror quickly.  Especially since they don't play again until next Monday.  I'm sure they don't want to sit on 2 straight losses for that long.

I'll have a recap of that game tomorrow, and I'll also have a recap of the first 1-hour episode of HBO's well-hyped and highly anticipated 24/7 series featuring the Penguins and Washington Capitals, which airs tonight at 10:00 PM EST (encore at 11:00 PM EST).  Can't wait for that ....


NOTES:

LW Chris Kunitz did not play against the Flyers last night.  He's dealing with an undisclosed injury (head coach Dan Bylsma said he's just "banged up").  Malkin took his spot in the lineup and on Crosby's wing for the game.  It's likely Pittsburgh will go with the same look tonight, since Kunitz will probably sit again.

Crosby and Capitals' star winger Alexander Ovechkin will be guests on "The Price is Right" this coming Monday, together with former NHL player Jeremy Roenick, where they will help give away a 'showcase showdown' package involving tickets to the Winter Classic and other related prizes.