Flyers Win Convincingly in Pittsburgh; You Breathe Sigh of Relief

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Big breaths, nice and slow.

The Flyers not only dispensed of their division rivals in a fashion
that made the opponent seem rather ordinary, but they managed to gain a
point on the next closest conference rival. With a solid 5-2 victory
over the Penguins, the orange and black have all but solidified their
crown in the Atlantic Division, not to mention kept pace atop the
Eastern Conference.

The Pens came out with an unusual approach to open the game, hitting
everything that moved. Pittsburgh has gained a reputation in these parts
for being a soft team since Sidney Crosby became a household name, but
they were aggressive from the jump. Within two minutes, you could tell
one of the primary goals was to play a physical style of hockey.

It worked... for awhile.

Pitt definitely outplayed the good guys in the first period. They
were creating collisions, causing turnovers, and generally out-hustling
the Flyers. The good guys were lucky to get out of the gate tied at one.
As a Philly power play came to an end, Braydon Coburn flipped a shot on
goal from the point that hit the post. The ricochet kicked off of the
back of netminder Marc-Andre Fleury's skate, and into the goal to even
the score.

The Penguins continued to give Philly trouble into the second, with a
seemingly endless supply of odd-man rushes that eventually led to a 2-1
lead. It would be their last.

Signaling their power play struggles may be coming to an end against
one of the two best penalty killing teams in the NHL, the Flyers worked
the puck in the zone for the better part of a minute before Scott
Hartnell punched a wrap-around by Fleury to knot the game at two. At
this point, the game was getting chippy, as Brooks Orpik railed Harty
into the net well after the disc found twine.

The attitude wore off rather quickly. Less than a minute later,
Andrej Mazaros gained the zone on a feed from Sean O'Donnell, and found
Claude Giroux as he stormed the blue line. Giroux beat a Penguin
defender to his right, and sent a wrister the other way over Fleury's
blocker to give the Flyers a 3-2 lead in period two.

And that was all she wrote. The Flyers began to play conservatively,
and Pittsburgh appeared to get tired. Ville Leino added a pair of goals
in the final frame, and is one away from being the seventh club member
to reach 20 goals.

Meanwhile, the Capitals lost to the Hurricanes in a shootout, which
puts Washington three points behind the lead in the Eastern Conference.

Goes without saying this was an important win, but not just due to
the standings. The Flyers played a complete game tonight. They responded
to a team that wanted to play physical. They scored goals, on the power
play and from behind. Then when they finally got the lead, they shut it
down defensively while pouring it on at the other end.

It's almost time for some playoff hockey.

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