Philadelphia's Darroll Powe, middle, celebrates his empty-net goal with teammates Kimmo Timonen and Mike Richards. (Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)Simon Gagne and Scott Hartnell both scored power-play goals to guide the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 win over the hometown Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon.
Philadelphia ranks in the top six of the league in both power play and penalty kill percentages and leads the NHL in short-handed goals while not allowing a short-handed tally all season.
"Obviously, [the power play] was big tonight," Philadelphia coach John Stevens said. "It got us an early lead, which I thought was important. The penalty kill [also] did an outstanding job."
With the win, the Flyers opened up a two-point lead over the Penguins in the race for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Had the regular season ended Sunday, the two teams would have met in the first round of the playoffs, with the Flyers enjoying home-ice advantage.
"They clicked on the power play, they won the power play and the special teams part of the game, which is a big factor," said Penguins interim coach Dan Bylsma of the Flyers.
Goalie Martin Biron made 27 saves, and Darroll Powe added an empty-net goal for the Flyers, who lost the season series 4-2.
Philadelphia also had an outstanding defensive effort, as neither Sidney Crosby nor Evgeni Malkin — the top two leading scorers in the NHL — recorded a shot on goal for Pittsburgh.
"That's pretty good, you know, to face the top two scorers in the league and keep them to the outside, keep them from shooting the puck," Hartnell said.
The Penguins were 8-1-1 in their previous 10 home games and had won five in a row against the Flyers at Mellon Arena — eight straight if counting last season's Eastern Conference final.
Pittsburgh leads the league in victories when trailing after two periods (11), but a possible comeback was thwarted partly by Sergei Gonchar's double-minor for roughing after time had expired at the end of the second period. Gonchar was livid that Joffrey Lupul cross-checked him as time was about to expire.
Kris Letang tallied for the Penguins, who hadn't lost in regulation time since Feb. 22 against the Washington Capitals.
Crosby did extend his point streak to 13 games with an assist on Letang's goal. Malkin also earned an assist to give him 105 points for the season.
"I thought we did a pretty good job carrying the play for most of the game," Crosby said.
Entering Sunday's contest, Pittsburgh had won eight of their past 10 games, and only suffered one regulation-time loss in 17 outings under Bylsma.
Gagne opened the scoring with his 29th goal of the campaign at 5:19 of the first period when he fired home a loose puck from inside the faceoff circle.
The Flyers made it 2-0 with another power-play goal at 2:54 of the middle frame. Hartnell netted his 27th goal of the season when teammate Jeff Carter's shot deflected off of his skate and past Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
The play went upstairs for review, but the video replay showed that Hartnell did not make a distinct kicking motion to direct the puck into the net and the goal stood.
"[Daniel Briere] made a good play going wide, fed [Carter], and I don't know if he tried to shoot it or if he knew I was backdoor and had my stick and my skates kind of angled toward the net and was able to find my skate and go in," Hartnell said. "I definitely didn't kick it, so it was a big relief when [the referee] pointed to centre ice."
Letang scored on the power play midway through the final period, but the Flyers shut out the Penguins the rest of the way and Powe scored into an empty net with 28 seconds left in regulation to seal the win for Philadelphia.
With files from the Associated Press
