There were moments in the latest edition of the Philadelphia Flyers/Pittsburgh Penguins rivalry that reminded this writer of the great hockey movie Slap Shot.
All the chaos started when the Flyers' Zac Rinaldo hit the Penguins' Kris Letang from behind, driving him into the boards in the first period. Rinaldo was given a 5 minute major and a game misconduct. Letang left the game and did not return.
Then the fighting began.
Penguins forward Zach Sill got the better of Michael Raffl in a bitter, hard-fought battle to get the second period started. The NHL's leading scorer Jakub Voracek took such an exception to a Rob Scuderi hip check before he provoked a fight with the Penguins defenseman just six minutes later. It was the first fight in the National Hockey League for Scuderi and his inexperience showed. His last fight came on March 21, 2004 while he was a member of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
Former Flyer Steve Downie got roughed up by Luke Schenn in their scrap just a minute and 47 second later before recently recalled up right winger Bobby Farnham traded punches with Pierre Edouard Bellemare. It was Farnham’s 11th appearance of the season for the Penguins and first since January 2nd.
After it was all said and done the Flyers would win on the scoreboard. Taking advantage on their second power play of the overtime period to beat the Penguins 3-2 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Claude Giroux netted the game winner when Penguins goalie Thomas Greiss could not control the puck. It landed in the blue paint and Giroux spotted it and fired it into an open net for his 16th.
The Pens power play has started to click in recent times having converted as least once in each of their last four games. They had to be licking their chops entering tonight's game seeing how the Flyers PK was the worst in the league. Pittsburgh's power play didn't have much punch going 0-for-6 while also having a five minute major penalty to work with.
In the first period the Penguins heavily outshot the Flyers 17-3. The Flyers (19-22-7) did not get their first shot on goal until 13:11 when Luke Schenn took advantage of an errant Beau Bennett clearing attempt and sent a shot through a screen that beat Griess high on the glove side. It was the second goal of the season for Schenn.
Chris Kunitz recorded his 500th career NHL point by scoring a shorthanded goal at 2:59 of the second period. Kunitz jumped on a soft pass between two Flyers defensemen on a power play opportunity to spring a 2-on-1 with Sidney Crosby. Kunitz kept and fired a shot past Emery on the short side to level the game at 1.
Beau Bennett gave Pittsburgh (26-12-7) a brief one goal lead when he took a wrist shot from the bottom of the left wing circle that beat Ray Emery for his 3rd goal. The goal was set up by a beautiful play from Evgeni Malkin whose patience was rewarded when he found Bennett at the back post for the goal.
Two minutes later, Chris VandeVelde tied the game with his 6th goal tipping in a Michael Del Zotto shot. There was nothing Greiss could do about that one as VandeVelde found himself wide open in a screening position.
The Flyers have now beaten the Penguins 6 straight times. October 17, 2013 was the last time that Pittsburgh beat Philadelphia, it was also the last time they won at Wells Fargo Center. Pittsburgh's record against the Metropolitan Division this season is now 6-9-3.
The Penguins will host the Chicago Blackhawks in their last game before the All-Star Break.