Flyers Rally Past Penguins, 5-3
PITTSBURGH (AP) — R.J. Umberger and Matt Read scored 2 minutes apart in the third period to lift the Philadelphia Flyers past the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3 on Wednesday night.
Umberger, a Pittsburgh native, beat Marc-Andre Fleury 6:50 into the third to break a tie and Read followed with a backhander to help the Flyers improve to 12-2-1 at Consol Energy Center since the arena opened in 2010.
Sean Couturier had a goal and an assist, Mark Streit and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also scored for the Flyers, and Ray Emery stopped 21 shots.
Nick Spaling had a goal and an assist for Pittsburgh. Pascal Dupuis and Marcel Goc also scored for Pittsburgh, but the Penguins were plagued by defensive breakdowns. Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves but was consistently put in tough spots as Philadelphia expertly counter-attacked to catch the Penguins out of position.
Umberger, who grew up 20 minutes east of the arena, scored his first goal of the season when he blasted a feed from Claude Giroux by Fleury. Read's first tally was considerably easier, tucking a backhander past the sprawled Fleury to give the Flyers a cushion.
Goc drew Pittsburgh within a goal when he beat Emery with 2:57 remaining, but Couturier flipped a puck the length of the ice into an empty net with 26 seconds left.
Though the game featured two U.S. teams, the sell-out crowd sang "O Canada" before the opening faceoff as a tribute to a Canadian soldier killed in attack in Ottawa on Wednesday.
The Flyers are off to a sluggish start and came in smarting from a 4-0 loss in Chicago the night before. Still, Philadelphia has dominated its in-state rivals since the Penguins moved from the Igloo across the street to the Consol Energy Center, leading Pittsburgh to reach into its past hoping to change its karma.
The Penguins wore a third jersey that replicated the uniform won by the Mario Lemieux-led teams that won consecutive Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. The new old duds seemed to give Pittsburgh early energy.
Spaling gave the Penguins an early lead with his first goal since being acquired in a draft day trade from Nashville in June, jumping on a rebound and beating Emery over his right shoulder just 3:50 into the game. The score seemed to temporarily deflate the Flyers. Pittsburgh controlled play for an extended stretch at one point, keeping the puck in the Philadelphia zone for the better part of a minute at even strength. The effort drew a standing ovation but no results, as Emery kept Philadelphia in it.
The Flyers quickly gathered themselves and eventually countered. Streit's slap shot from the point appeared to be deflected by Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin to tie it and Bellemare, a 29-year-old rookie from France, scored his first NHL goal with a delicate tip-in off a centering pass from Couturier.
Dupuis evened it 9 minutes into the second when Paul Martin's shot from the point hit him and found its way around Emery.
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