With the Flyers shorthanded, it was nothing short of a blood bath. The Penguins scored three goals in the first and never looked back, handing the Flyers a 6-2 loss at Wells Fargo Center.
The Flyers gave up three goals in the first four minutes of the game. Alain Vigneault used his timeout. The Flyers didn't come back in waves, but trimmed away the lead and completed the rally with just over two minutes left in regulation, resulting in arguably their most impressive win of the season.
A deflection goal by Scott Laughton tied the game with 6:23 remaining, then Claude Giroux's second goal of the game with 2:08 to play proved to be the difference in the Flyers 4-3 comeback win over the Penguins on Thursday night.
With their full lineup back on the ice, the Penguins showed the formula that defeats the Flyers, and did it without Sidney Crosby in the lineup. Following a quick response to a Flyers goal off a turnover, they commanded the play from there, and it didn’t seem to matter that the Flyers were throwing plenty of rubber at the Pittsburgh net.
The Penguins took control in the second period and erased a Flyers third-period goal in short order on their way to a 5-2 result over the Flyers on Tuesday night.
After defeating the Penguins on Wednesday, they return to the ice at Wells Fargo Center on Friday night for the second meeting of the season. With Wednesday's result still fresh in their minds, expect a more determined effort from the Penguins, as the Flyers look to get off to a 2-0 start. The opening face-off is at 7 p.m.
A fortunate goal got the score even and somehow the game was tied after one period. From there, the Flyers played the dominant forechecking game they have proven to be capable of and actually kept the game in their favor for some time. They got the game to overtime, earned a solid point in the standings, before falling in a marathon shootout that went 11 rounds in a 4-3 defeat to Toronto.
In the 11th round of a marathon shootout, Andreas Johnsson managed to beat Brian Elliott for the deciding goal, as the Flyers dropped a hard-fought contest, 4-3, to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.