Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Sidney Crosby recorded his first career
hat-trick and Evgeni Malkin scored in his fifth straight game as the
Pittsburgh Penguins beat up the Philadelphia Flyers, 8-2, at the Wachovia
Center.
Malkin also had two assists and Maxime Talbot scored twice for the Penguins,
who have won four in a row. Mark Recchi and Dominic Moore rounded out the
scoring.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves to secure his sixth win of the campaign.
Mike Knuble and Stefan Ruzicka each had goals for the Flyers, who were coming
off their second win of the season and first under new head coach John
Stevens, a 3-2 shootout victory over Atlanta on Thursday.
"We started off good with the win on Thursday, but were set back tonight,"
Philadelphia's Peter Forsberg said. "We just have to improve on the good
things and move forward."
Antero Niittymaki stopped just five of the nine shots he faced, before being
pulled in favor of Robert Esche in the second period. Esche didn't do much
better, as he gave up four goals on 21 shots.
Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead just over two minutes into the first, as Knuble's
backhand shot beat the glove of Fleury.
The Penguins, though, went on a tear and scored six unanswered goals between
the first and second periods, including three by Crosby to take a commanding
6-1 advantage.
Crosby's slap shot netted the puck to tie the game 6:03 into the first.
Just under five minutes later, Talbot used a wrist shot to score an
unassisted, short-handed goal to put Pittsburgh up 2-1.
In the second, Talbot beat Niittymaki after a feed from Sergei Gonchar, and 18
seconds later, Crosby's wrister put the Penguins up 4-1 at the 2:41 mark.
Crosby scored his third goal, an unassisted backhander 8:14 into the second
and Pittsburgh padded its lead when Malkin scored a power-play goal at the
13:39 mark. Gonchar and Ryan Whitney assisted the goal.
The Flyers opened the third period with a power-play goal by Ruzicka to cut
their deficit, 6-2.
Less than four minutes later, Recchi found the net with a wrist shot as
Pittsburgh regained its five-goal lead.
The Penguins went up 8-2 when Moore slipped the disc past the stick side of
Esche after a centering pass at the left circle from John LeClair.
