PIT VS PHIUnassuming Pens centre Jordan Staal leading the way

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By Tim Panaccio in Pittsburgh

IN THE SHADOWS

Very quietly, Jordan Staal has become the leading goal-scorer for the Pittsburgh Penguins and is tied with Claude Giroux with five goals in the series.

He had a hat trick in Game 4 on Wednesday.

"I just want to keep this playoff going and it was a big game from a lot of guys in the room," Staal said.

"It's just one game. I mean, you know, they're going to come with a better effort and we're going to have to play even better, so, like you said before, one game at a time. We're focused on the next five minutes."

Staal and Evgeni Malkin each had three-point games.

"Yeah, we needed a lot of guys to step up to win this first one and try to keep things rolling," Staal said. "A lot of guys in the room know how to play playoff hockey and I thought we had a great effort."

The Flyers feels confident going back to Pittsburgh that they will end this series.

"We're in great position up 3-1 and we didn't win the first three by luck," Claude Giroux said. "You saw some good stuff out there.

"Obviously, our last game wasn't our best effort. But hopefully, we can change that [Friday]."

Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette was more direct.

"We're trying to defend a good hockey team," he said. "Last night, we failed miserably.

"We lost a lot of areas. Areas we can be better at from specialty teams to discipline to puck possession.

"Areas I know where we can improve.They turned up their desperation level and came out and were quicker and executed better and won a hockey game."

TOO MANY WHISTLES

That has been the case this entire series. The Flyers came away from Game 4 with 64 more penalty minutes, giving them a league-high 149 in post-season.

Going into Thursday afternoon, the Flyers were awaiting league action on Zac Rinaldo, who took a series of nasty penalties in the second period and was ejected.

"Yeah, there was a lot of penalties," said Giroux, the unequivocal leader on this Flyers squad.

"But I think we kind of deserved those penalties. The refs did a pretty good job.

"We can't be holding people's stick and interference. I'm not sure what happened.

"But I know we had a lot of penalty kills. Like we said earlier on in the series, they've got one of the best power plays in the league.

"You give them the opportunity they're going to put it in. We've got to do a better job of being disciplined. We can't give that team a lot of power plays like that."

Laviolette agreed.

"We need to do a better job with discipline," he said, adding his club deserved every penalty it got (16 in all) in Game 4.

"We have to do a better job. Did we cross check? Yeah.

"Did we hook? Yeah.

"Did we hold? Yeah.

"There's got to be accountability to use. We gave them 13 minutes of power-play time.

"That is a dangerous, dangerous road you go down. We have to do a better job with discipline."

WAS THAT LEMIEUX?

Pittsburgh's 10 goals tied a franchise record (both sides) for goals, going back to Game 5 of the 1989 Patrick Division final. Mario Lemieux had a league-record five goals that game. Now, the 10-3 loss on Wednesday was the worst Flyers' playoff loss since getting blown out 8-0 against Buffalo in Game 6 of the 2001 Eastern Conference quarter-finals.

WORRIED ABOUT BRYZ?

Ilya Bryzgalov got yanked 23 minutes into Game 4 after allowing five goals on 18 shots. How does he handle Game 5?

"There's nothing you can do," Bryzgalov said.  "We lost. 

"It's a 3-1 in the series right now. We need to win the one game and everything will be over."

His teammates seem to have confidence in him.

"I'm not worried about Bryz," Giroux said. "He knows what he's got to do.

"He's a lead goaltender and we got to do a better job in front of him. He'll be our best player in Game 5."

STAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Eight the top nine playoff goal scorers going into play on Thursday reside in this series.

STAT YOU NEED TO FORGET

Sergei Bobrovsky's GAA in this series is 8.11 and his save percentage is .722.

Tim Panaccio reports for CSNPhilly.com. Follow him on Twitter @tpanotchCSN

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