For the second game in a row, the Flyers dug themselves out of a big early hole to come back and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road in their first round NHL playoffs match. Rookie Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux both had tricks as the Flyers downed the Pens 8-5 in a wild affair that gives the Flyers a commanding 2-0 lead in the series as it now shifts to Philadelphia.
The Flyers finished the third period in a 3-1 hole and generally got outworked, out shot and outplayed. Peter Laviolette must have said something good in the locker room because they came out in the second on fire, making the period a mirror image of the first withe Flyers scoring three times to Pittsburgh's one. The teams headed into the third tied at 4.
The Penguins would strike first as Tyler Kennedy scored just 1:04 into the period. However, as they have all series, the Flyers would respond. 19 year old rookie Sean Couturier used a stunning individual effort to tie the game less than :20 later. You'll see in the video as he loses the faceoff, but simply steals the puck from the Pittsburgh defenseman, takes the puck in on net and scores.
After the youngest guy on the team had his moment of glory, it was the old man's turn. Perhaps fittingly, the game winner was scored by one of the greatest players to ever don a Penguins sweater, Jaromir Jagr. Only this time he was wearing Flyer orange. His turnaround shot here is a thing to behold.
Couturier would add another later in the period off a great feed from Giroux, then he would return the favor assisting on Giroux's empty netter. Both goals capped off hat tricks for each guy. Giroux set a Flyers franchise record with 6 points in the game.
The Flyers leave Pittsburgh having more or less shocked the hockey world with two wins on the road against the team who was favored to win the Eastern conference. They'll take a commanding 2-0 series lead back to Philadelphia. The Penguins now face the prospect of finding some way to get over two shocking home losses, both of which saw them blow big leads.
Game 3 happens Sunday afternoon at 3 at Wells Fargo Center.