The Pittsburgh Penguins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers today 5-1 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
It was the Flyers’ first game with Daniel Briere as interim GM after firing Chuck Fletcher. Goalie Carter Hart made 27 saves, and forward Kieffer Bellows got the lone goal for the Flyers, who dropped to 24-31-11 and have lost their last three straight games.
Forward Jason Zucker scored his eighth goal in his past seven games, and forwards Jake Guentzel and Mikael Granlund each had a goal and an assist for the Penguins, who improved to 33-22-10 and have improved to 6-1-1 in their last eight games. Goaltender Casey DeSmith also had 31 saves for the Pens. The Penguins are now tied with the New York Islanders for the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Head coach Mike Sullivan also got his 400th win in his coaching career. Sullivan is now 400-234-15-87 in his career as a head coach for the Penguins and Boston Bruins.
Less than six minutes into the game, forward Rickard Rakell deflected a shot from defenseman Marcus Pettersson to give the Penguins the 1-0 lead. At 10:04, Bellows tied the game at 1-1 with a snap shot that beat DeSmith.
Less than seven minutes into the second period, forward Sidney Crosby scored a power-play goal to put the Penguins up 2-1. At 17:26, forward Jeff Carter was stopped by Hart on a short-handed breakaway to keep the game at 2-1.
Just over six minutes into the period, Pettersson was called for a hooking penalty, and Casey DeSmith made four saves to keep the game at 2-1. At 11:57, forward Bryan Rust was called for tripping, and DeSmith made two more saves on the power play to keep the Penguins lead. At 14:24, Zucker redirected a shot from Pettersson to extend the Penguins’ lead to 3-1. With just over a minute remaining, Guentzel scored an empty net goal to extend the Penguins’ lead to 4-1. With 56 seconds left, Granlund scored to make it 5-1 Penguins. Granlund got his first two points in his fourth game with the Pens after being acquired from the Nashville Predators on March 1st.
Penguins forward Nick Bonino did not play for the Penguins after he had surgery to repair a lacerated kidney. He will be out week-to-week per Sullivan. Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim had two shots on goal and 20:55 of ice time in his 400th career NHL game. Another Flyers defenseman, Tony DeAngelo, served his second game of a two-game suspension for spearing forward Corey Perry on Tuesday.
