Philadelphia Flyers put Pittsburgh Penguins on edge with 8-4 win and 3-0 series lead -NHL Update
Pittsburgh continued with their sluggish play as the Penguins gave up in the final half of a fight filled matchup, allowing Philadelphia Flyers to take the easy win by a dominating, 8-4, on Sunday night, April 15, 2012, at the sold-out Wells Fargo Center
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It is definitely a scary situation now for Pittsburgh as Philadelphia has won all three matches so far in the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Eastern Conference playoff quarterfinals, but that is not the only thing putting Penguins on the edge.
Flyers are a well known team and seeing how they have never lost after taking a 2-0 lead in any playoff series, Penguins can count themselves out when it comes to game-four of the quarterfinals.
There was so much trash talking and fighting going on Sunday night between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh that it was hard to tell whether it was a hockey or a wrestling match.
Penguins’ captain, Sidney Crosby, showed his wild side after he got into a number of fights with Philadelphia players and would not back down on his stance. It might have affected his team in a negative way but pride was the issue in this series.
Whatever anyone says about how physical games get at times, they have to realise that these are the playoffs and this is what it’s all about.
"In the end, that's really playoff hockey," Flyers coach, Peter Laviolette, said. "A couple of the best players in the world dropping the gloves going at it. Would I rather have G keep his gloves on? Sure. But when he's fighting Sidney Crosby, that's playoff
hockey. That's this series."
For Crosby, the series is just getting started and they have no intentions of giving up yet.
"There's more than one team getting in those things," Crosby said. "You can make a story all you want about us getting frustrated. They're doing the same things we are. It's intense."
Jordan Staal added the first for Pittsburgh followed by Philadelphia’s Maxime Talbot and Danny Briere twice in a row to take a 3-1 lead. James Neal potted Pittsburgh’s second while Matt Read finalised the first period at 4-2 for Philadelphia.
James Neal and Jordan Staal added two for Penguins in round two while Matt Read and Wayne Simmonds followed with on power plays.
Claude Giroux and Maxime Talbot finalised the match with two more in the third period to take the 3-1 lead in the series.
The Pittsburgh-Philadelphia series will continue with game-four on Wednesday, April 18, 2012.
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