Game 6: Flyers take down Penguins, 5-1
Apr 22, 2012 (Menafn - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --PHILADELPHIA -- The Flyers eliminated the Penguins from the playoffs with a 5-1 win in Game 6 today at Wells Fargo Center.
The Penguins had won two games in a row in the first-round series after falling behind 3-0, but couldn't force a winner-take-all Game 7.
Philadelphia was seeded fifth in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins, fourth, but the Penguins had been widely considered a favorite to win the Stanley Cup with their core players healthy and the second-most points in the conference and fourth-most in the NHL.
The Flyers got a quick 1-0 lead. After a Steve Sullivan giveaway, Claude Giroux whipped the puck from the top of the left circle past goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and inside the top near corner of the net 32 seconds into the first period.
Scott Hartnell scored Philadelphia's 12th power-play goal to make it 2-0 at 13:01 of the first period. Fleury stopped a shot by Giroux but didn't control it. The puck banged around the crease until Hartnell dove and swatted it past the goal line.
The dozen power-play goals is a Flyers playoff record for a series.
With a goal and assist in the first period, Giroux moved to a club-record 13 points for a series.
Erik Gustafsson pushed the Flyers' lead to 3-0 at 5:25 of the second period when his shot from just inside the blue line hit the stick of the Penguins' Zbynek Michalek and sailed under Fleury's left arm.
The Penguins broke through when Evgeni Malkin scored an unassisted power-play goal off of a three-on-three rush, making it 3-1 at 9:10 of the second period. His shot from between the right hash marks and dot made it through a screen of bodies.
Philadelphia got a lot of response goals in the first three games, and they got another 36 seconds after Malkin scored.
Daniel Briere made it 4-1 at 9:10 of the second period when his shot bounced under Fleury and trickled over the goal line.
Brayden Schenn added an empty-net goal with 7.9 seconds left in regulation.
Shelly Anderson: shanderson@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1721 or Twitter @pgshelly.
___ (c)2012 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at
www.post-gazette.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
Copyright (C) 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
