Pittsburgh Penguins-Philadelphia Flyers Quarterfinal Series Review -NHL Playoffs Special
Pittsburgh Penguins was one of those teams that everyone thought would at least be making the 2012 National Hockey League (NHL) Stanley Cup Finals after ending off the regular seasons in one of the best ways possible.
Penguins ended the season just one point behind top Eastern Conference team, New York Rangers, with 108 points and nearly overtaking the Atlantic Division top spot if they had a few more games left.
But when it came down to the quarterfinal series against Philadelphia Flyers, all the superstar Penguins players chocked big time and were eliminated in just six games after putting up barely any fight.
Just a year earlier, Penguins still made the playoffs without two of their superstar players, captain Sidney Crosby and leading centre, Evgeni Malkin. Now with both of them healthy and ready to go, Pittsburgh barely made a mark in the postseason and rather
looked to be a team full of amateurs.
The first four games were just outright embarrassing for Penguins as they allowed more than 30 goals as Philadelphia thrashed them like they were a bunch of kids playing with the big boys in the NHL.
"Being down 3-0, we were confident, and we remained confident, but we just ran out," Penguins forward, Jordan Staal, said.
Philadelphia was smart to take advantage of the fact that Pittsburgh was an emotional team and got even more distressed with all the fighting.
"We needed to play perfect hockey to stay in this series, to win this series, and we didn't get the kind of start we needed today," Crosby said. "We felt like we could get it back to Pittsburgh, and now we have some time to think about why we didn't."
Ilya Bryzgalov proved to be the top player for Philadelphia as he fell short just a couple of times but remained solid in net in helping Flyers eliminate one of the strongest teams in the NHL.
Game 1
Pittsburgh gave up a huge 3-0 lead as Philadelphia just outright dominated the last 40 minutes including the overtime extension to win 4-3.
Game 2
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were tied 4-4 entering the final 20 minutes of regulation but Flyers scored four straight in the least 10 minutes to grab the lead in the series after a huge 8-5 victory.
Game 3
Game 3 went down even harder as Philadelphia just could not stop scoring, winning the match 8-4 and putting Penguins on the brink of elimination.
Game 4
Pittsburgh showed signs of a rebound as they dominated Philadelphia and shocked the fans with a 10-3 victory but it was short lived.
Game 5
Pittsburgh lived to see another day by edging Flyers 3-2.
Game 6
Philadelphia had enough and eliminated the Penguins easily, 5-1, in Game 6.
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