Phanatic Hockey Editor
Just breathe.
Despite a harrowing late-game sequence which saw the hosts have not one, not two, but three separate cracks at a 5-on-3 power play, all was eventually right in the hockey world -- at least from a local perspective.
Jakub Voracek completed his first career hat trick thanks to recording the game-winning goal with 1:31 left in regulation as the Philadelphia Flyers gutted out a 6-5 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins at CONSOL Energy Center.
Wayne Simmonds added two goals and one assist for the Flyers, who avenged an opening-day 3-1 home loss to their bitter rivals and completed a season-long six-game road trip with two straight wins to finish at 3-3-0.
"It'll be good to get home," said Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette in a bit of prescience prior to the contest. "It's been a lot of time away from home and a lot of games in a lot of nights. In some of those games I've liked what we've done and in a lot of them we needed to be better, but getting back home and getting the schedule set up in our favor and knowing you're going to see guys on the ice that have not been on the ice due to injury -- all that adds up to a positive."
Nicklas Grossman also tallied, while Claude Giroux posted a pair of assists as Ilya Bryzgalov picked up the victory with 27 saves as Philadelphia improved to 6-1-0 in the regular season in the Pens' new arena.
Matt Niskanen, James Neal, Evgeni Malkin, Brandon Sutter and Tyler Kennedy for the Penguins, whose three-game win streak came to a halt.
Tomas Vokoun was shelled in defeat for six goals on 32 shots.
Ahead by a 5-3 count and having failed at their own four-minute advantage after Pens winger Tanner Glass was sent off for high sticking, a double minor to Mike Knuble plus another high stick call to Ruslan Fedotenko 41 seconds apart threatened to make things very interesting.
Neal made it 5-4 with 7:14 to play on a far-side blast from the right circle to end the first portion of the two-man edge, and Talbot was whistled for closing his hand on the puck during an attempted clear, lengthening the 5-on-3 even further.
Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz had a potential tying goal with 5:39 on the clock wiped out when replay revealed he used a distinct kicking motion, then he tried to sneak a stuffer past Bryzgalov at the left post and failed on his next shift.
Though the Flyers managed to survive the remainder of their short-handed situation, Sutter walked out in front and tied the game, 5-5, with 2:03 to play. That set the stage for the young Czech to steal the show and pull the rug out from under another possible comeback by the revved up hosts.
Only 32 seconds after Sutter tied the game on a wraparound, Voracek's sharp-angle try from the goal line to Vokoun's left managed to sneak off his body and over the goal line for a 6-5 game with 91 seconds to play.
The extra attacker was called upon with 1:07 to go but the home team couldn't squeeze out one more quality chance from their offense.
"He just shot it from behind the net, and I knocked it in my own net. That’s tough," said Vokoun about the deciding score. "I think we deserved a point, but by my mistake we didn’t get it."
What a way to return to the comforts of home ice, where the club will begin a five-game stand on Thursday against the Florida Panthers.
Aware of the meaning in this Keystone State collision, both teams came out with bundles of nervous energy. The best chance in the first four minutes for either side was a 3-on-1 break led by Philly's Sean Couturier, which was muted by Vokoun on the right wing. Talbot also nearly scored on the rebound, but his spinning chance slid wide.
Pittsburgh hit the scoreboard at the 5:07 mark when Niskanen fired away on a rolling puck and it zipped past Bryzgalov inside the left post.
The Pens received the game's first power play on the following shift, and though Bryzgalov gloved down Malkin's shot from the right circle, the puck appeared to have crossed the goal line inside the webbing.
A review proved to be inconclusive, but Malkin made the most of his next chance, potting a rebound at the right post with five seconds left on the advantage for a 2-0 game at 7:15.
It was 2-1 with 8:11 remaining on a bizarre sequence. A goalmouth scramble around the Pens' net -- which featured two near-scores by Philadelphia and half of all players on the ice either within or near the crease -- was allowed to endure for more than 10 seconds without a whistle. Grossmann eventually
lifted a shot over the mass of humanity for his first of the year.
Only 60 seconds later, the game was tied as Simmonds accepted a Danny Briere pass, worked from the left circle to the top of the crease and slipped a shot past Vokoun's pad.
Vokoun's poke check halted a Max Talbot breakaway within the first five minutes of the second period, and a relatively calm middle stanza that featured 18 combined shots ended with the visitors up 3-2.
On a power play in the final 10 seconds, Voracek was standing alone on the right side -- as he did to tally the overtime winner in Game 1 of last year's Eastern quarterfinal -- to corral a Simmonds rebound and lift it home over two bodies.
The Flyers went up 4-2 with only 18 seconds played in the third period. After Fedotenko worked a puck loose from underneath Vokoun, the disc squirted to the right side, where Voracek alertly followed up and beat a sliding defender with a soft shot.
It marked the eighth time this season the Orange and Black scored within the first minute of a given period.
“The big thing for me right now is his skating,” Laviolette said. “He’s really moving his feet and that’s when Jake was at his best last year. He’s fast and he’s quick and that’s a dangerous combination. I think once he got through the first eight games or so and got to the speed he needs to be at he’s been a real dangerous player."
Kennedy pulled the hosts within one at 5:29, getting a puck home at the right post before Bryzgalov could close off the space, but Simmonds was credited with another score, at 7:36, when his attempted cross-crease pass to Giroux rolled up Niskanen's stick and into the net.
“It was an entertaining game, that’s for sure," Pittsburgh defenseman Brooks Orpik said. "It was fun at times and not so fun at times, but obviously not the result we wanted.”
Notes: Voracek upped his total to eight points (3G, 5A) in the last three games...His hat trick was the first for Philly in Pittsburgh since Bobby Clarke did so in a 6-5 win on December 13, 1980...The Flyers improved to 6-1-0 all-time in the regular season at Pens' new home arena, and 8-2-0 including playoffs in the venue which opened in October of 2010...Malkin's goal gave Pittsburgh at least one power-play goal in each of the last nine games, and snapped Philadelphia's streak of 21 straight power plays killed off...Flyers defenseman Kurtis Foster missed his second straight game due to the birth of his second son on Tuesday in Philadelphia...The Penguins fell to 3-4-0 at home this year...In 21 career home games
against the Flyers, Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby has tallied 37 points (14G, 23A), including points in nine of his past 10 home games against them...Malkin's tally was also his first in six games, since Feb. 7 vs. Washington...Flyers forward Matt Read suffered an upper-body injury reported to be a puck to the chest, left the game after the first period and did not return...Grossman recorded his first score since Jan. 21, 2011 ... Kennedy produced his first goal in 15 games, since Jan. 20 at the Rangers...Simmonds' three points tied a career high ... Penguins defenseman Paul Martin registered three assists in defeat.
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