Penguins Down Flyers to Get Back in Playoff Picture

The games remaining may not carry much meaning for the Flyers in the standings, but their opponent was in a much different situation on Sunday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the day on the outside looking into the playoff picture.

Behind a strong goaltending performance and two first-period goals, the Penguins were able to outlast the Flyers in a 4-2 decision.

The Penguins got on the board first at 11:40. A one-timer by Rickard Rakell went wide, but bounced off the endboards and back off Sam Ersson and in to make it 1-0.

Just over three minutes later at 14:53, Rakell scored his second goal of the game and 27th of the season on the power play to make it 2-0.

Through 20 minutes, shots were 15-7 Pittsburgh.

The Penguins added to the lead in the second. Bryan Rust scored his 19th goal of the season at 13:23 to make it 3-0.

Through two periods, shots were 25-20 Pittsburgh.

The Flyers got on the board at 5:57 of the third, as Nick Deslauriers finished off a centering feed from Tony DeAngelo to make it 3-1.

Late in the period, with the goalie pulled, Travis Konecny finished on a centering pass from Morgan Frost to cut the lead to one with his 29th goal of the season with 2:29 to play.

But the Penguins finished the game off moments later, as Ryan Poehling scored into an empty net with 1:12 remaining.

Casey DeSmith made 31 saves on 33 shots in the win. Ersson made 27 saves on 30 shots in the loss.

Rakell, Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Brian Dumoulin each had two points.

The Flyers continue their road trip on Tuesday night, facing off against the St. Louis Blues at 8 p.m.

Box Score

	1	2	3	T
Flyers	0	0	2	2
Penguins	2	1	1	4

Scoring Summary

1st Period

PIT Rickard Rakell (26) (Brian Dumoulin, Evgeni Malkin) 11:40
PIT Rakell (27) PP (Malkin, Sidney Crosby) 14:53

2nd Period

PIT Bryan Rust (19) (Crosby, Jeff Petry) 13:23

3rd Period

PHI Nick Deslauriers (6) (Tony DeAngelo, James van Riemsdyk) 5:57
PHI Travis Konecny (29) (Morgan Frost, Joel Farabee) 17:31
PIT Ryan Poehling (7) EN (Mikael Granlund, Dumoulin) 18:48

Game Statistics

	Flyers	Penguins
Shots	33	31
Power Play	0/5	1/4
Hits	30	29
Faceoff %	51.8%	48.2%
Giveaways	5	7
Takeaways	12	13
Blocked Shots	7	21
Penalty Minutes	12	24