The chances of the Penguins picking up two power play goals headed into Monday night’s game seemed slim. After all, Pittsburgh had just that many tallies on the man advantage in their previous 50 tries.
As low as those odds were, the chances of getting a victory in Philadelphia were even smaller. The Pens hadn’t picked up a win in the city in more than three years.
But the long shot came in on Monday night.
Pittsburgh netted two power play goals for the first time in a month, and Jean-Sebastien Aubin made 33 saves to lead the Penguins to a 2-1 win in Philadelphia. The victory snapped an eight-game winless streak (0-5-1-2) in Philly for the Penguins, whose last victory at the Wachovia Center came Nov. 24, 2000 in a 1-0 game.
The loss, on the other hand, extended the Flyers’ winless streak to five games (0-3-1-1) and their home winless streak to three (0-2-0-1).
Dick Tarnstrom beat Flyers’ netminder Robert Esche with a wrister on the Pens’ first power play opportunity of the evening. Tarnstrom used a Milan Kraft screen in front to pick up his eighth goal of the year and up his team-leading point total to 22.
Pittsburgh picked up its second power play tally of the night when Tom Kostopoulos drove hard to the net and picked up a rebound off Esche’s leg pads. TK chipped the puck over the sprawling goalie and the Pens had a 2-0 lead.
The Flyers had a chance to get back in the game just two and a half minutes later when Drake Berehowsky and Brooks Orpik picked up penalties just 14 seconds apart. Philly failed to capitalize on the two man advantage though, and the two goal lead held heading into the third period.
Philly finally got on the board with their 28th shot of the evening. Chris Therien held a clearing attempt in at the Penguins blueline then snapped off a shot on goal. Recently acquired Mike Comrie deflected the shot at the left hash marks, and the puck floated under Aubin’s left arm, giving Comrie four goals in nine games with the Flyers.
Rico Fata nearly made the score 3-1 during a Tony Amonte penalty, but Esche robbed the Pittsburgh forward with a spectacular pad save from in close just 90 seconds after the Philadelphia goal.
A little luck never hurts, either. Mark Recchi fired a shot that went through Aubin’s five-hole, bounced off the far post and found its way back underneath the Pittsburgh netminder. Then Comrie missed a virtually vacant net during Philadelphia’s fourth power play of the night, sending a shot behind Aubin and through the Pittsburgh crease with less than eight minutes to play.
The win was the first against the Flyers since the teams’ first meeting of last season, when the Penguins pounded Philadelphia, 7-2.
Posted by Ron at January 13, 2004 08:17 AM