INSIDE HOCKEY

PHILADELPHIA, Pa - Okay, tell me if you’ve heard this before. The Philadelphia Flyers are down 2-0 in their playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins with two games at home with a chance to even the series. If that sounds just a tad familiar to you, than you are probably right because it happened almost one year ago, but this time a funny thing happened. Last year Philadelphia lost Game 3 only to lose in five games.

This time around the Flyers outlasted the Penguins 6-3 to get back into the series. Last year Philly won Game 4, but with the Flyers playing well in Game 2, despite giving up a lead and blowing the game, the Flyers went back home a much more confident bunch.

In the first period, Joffrey Lupol skated down the middle of the ice and dropped the puck back to Jeff Carter at the Penguins blueline. Carter slew-footed the puck behind him to avoid the Penguins defenders. Carter ended up skating down the middle of the ice all the way to the Penguins net. Carter went backhand and put the puck past Marc-Andre Fluery for a 1-0 lead 2:59 into the game.

Than, the Flyers went on the power play. Mike Knuble went behind the Penguins net and sent a pas off to Mike Richards along the boards to the left of Fluery. Richards one-timed the pass towards the Penguins net. The pass turned into a shot and instead of the puck going to Simon Gagne, it went through Fluery’s five hole for a 2-0 lead at 5:14.

After some hard hits and near all out brawls, the Flyers looked as though they were going to the second period with a 2-0 lead, but with the period almost over, Maxime Talbot and Ruslan Fedotenko forchecked into the right defensive zone of the Flyers. All eyes were fixed on what was going in on the corners, However, Fedotenko got the puck and zipped a pass over to Evgeni Malkin, who was not being covered near Marty Biron, fired a quick shot past Biron with only 11.7 seconds left in the period to get Pittsburgh to within one at 2-1.

The Penguins came out of the second period and quickly tied the game at two to take out the raucous crowd in South Philly. Only 13 seconds into the period, Rob Scuderi fired a shot from the point off of a feed from Sidney Crosby. Biron was bowled over by Bill Guerin in front of the Flyers net and the shot got past Biron to tie the game.

Fortunately for the Flyers, they didn’t dwell on what happened. After the goal, the second period quickly became the Claude Giroux show. Darroll Powe skated into the Penguins zone from center but broke left. He took a shot but Fluery made a pad save on. The rebound came out to Daniel Briere who did a spin-a-rama and fired a pass off to Giroux who broke for the net and was all alone and fired into basically an empty net to put the Flyers back into the lead at 4:32.

Than, with the Flyers shorthanded, Giroux forchecked into the Penguins zone and stole the puck behind the net. Giroux skated left, then turned away from the defense and went right instead. With all eyes on Giroux he quickly fired a pass to Gagne who was off to Fleury’s left and shot the puck past him for a 4-2 lead at 8:58, and it was all downhill from there.

The Flyers would trade goals with Pittsburgh in the third period before Gagne scored an empty net goal to put the game to reach for the night and change the complexion of the series.

Girouxm, like the rest of the Flyers, took the Game 2 loss to heart, especially since it was his slashing penalty that led to a 5-3 situation that Pittsburgh eventually scored on to win in overtime.

"I was a little mad at myself for taking that penalty and he (head coach John Stevens) came to me and said, 'Don't worry about it, you have to bounce back,' " Giroux said. "It gave me a little more confidence and I was able to put that behind me faster."

As someone who has been through the playoff wars before in the AHL, Stevens has the ability to help deal with young players through difficulties. In this case, he wanted to make sure his penalty didn’t not crush his spirit.

"We talked about it being a learning experience," Stevens said. "I think he felt really bad because he cares. He showed a lot of composure for a young player that age in a pretty intense environment."

Stevens, like the rest of the NHL, is quickly becoming impressed by Giroux's passing ability and vision.

"He's been known to have elite vision," Stevens said. "That pass to Gagne, I'm not sure there are many players who are capable of making a play like that. He just didn't throw it there blind. He hung on to it and Gags has great offensive instincts, and he threaded the needle and got it to the far post. It was really an unbelievable pass by a young player."

Biron knew after the game just how important today’s game was.

"It's something we can build on, but you have to take it for what it is," said Biron after his 26 save performance. "There are some positives, but there are some things we can do better."

Stevens felt the same way but took it one step further.

"You can't come out of this game feeling too good about yourself," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "Both teams expended a lot of energy; we got one game, and now we have to leave it behind and get ready for the next one."

Contact the author at BJennings@Insidehockey.com