93.7 The Fan (PITTSBURGH) - The Penguins face a 3-0 deficit in a best of seven with the Philadelphia Flyers after a 5-2 game 3 defeat.
The Pens were 0 for 5 on the power play in game 2. They made sure to not continue the trend as they capitalized with a power play goal with 15:42 to play in the first period. Sidney Crosby fed a pass to Bryan Rust on the side of the net, he sent the puck to Evgeni Malkin on the other side of the net and he scored to make it 1-0 Penguins.
The Pens played their game in the first period, then everything changed in the second period. Travis Konecny hit Bryan Rust with a cheap shot elbow and it caused a full fledged brawl. Rust threw him to the ground and started throwing punches at Konecny. Konecny then took his gloves off and tried to challenge Rust to a fight but Rust skated away. Almost everyone on the ice broke into a fight. Five Flyers were sent to the penalty box. Pittsburgh had six sent to the box and Rust served a double minor, giving Philadelphia a 2 minute power play. Trevor Zegras buried a slap shot past Stuart Skinner with 14:42 to play in the second period to tie the game.
"There's a scrum there. We get the extra penalty. That changed everything," said head coach Dan Muse. "It took a long time to get it all sorted out. I felt that the momentum (changed). I'm not going to make excuses, there's plenty we could do better but that definitely factored into the game."
"I got elbowed so I kind of just locked him up, took him to the ground, he tried to kick me, threw a couple punches back and forth. Not sure why I got the extra two (minutes)," said Bryan Rust.
"We had a good first period. I think we started playing a little bit more the way we wanted to," said Erik Karlsson. "Then in the second you can call it what you want but they obviously won that battle, they came out on top and then we find a way to battle ourselves back at the end and then an unfortunate penalty, a power play goal against. It hurts but again we got a great opportunity right now. It's very difficult to get where we are. We've dug ourselves a hole for some that can seem impossible but at the end of the day it's a great opportunity and we have to find a way to move forward."
With 10:54 remaining in the period Rasmus Ristolainen scored on a wrist shot through the five-hole of Skinner to give Philadelphia a 2-1 lead. Seeler added to the Flyers lead with a wrist shot in front of the blue line to make it 3-1 Flyers. The Pens were outshot in the period 14-7 and outscored 3-0.
Matvei Michkov went to the box for a roughing penalty and with 10:21 to play in the game Erik Karlsson scored on the power play to cut the Flyers lead to 3-2. Anthony Mantha flung the puck out of play for a delay of game penalty to give the Flyers another power play opportunity. Jamie Drysdale made a great outlet pass to Noah Cates for a breakaway chance and Skinner robbed him with the glove. Cates got his revenge with a goal in front of the net to extend the Flyers lead back to 2 goals. Owen Tippett added an empty netter to end the game.
"We have to turn the page. We gotta win a game. That's got to be our focus. We'll turn that page and we'll focus in on that one game in getting the series back to Pittsburgh," said Muse.
In 215 series, only 4 teams have come back down 3 games to none.
In 215 series, only 4 teams have come back down 3 games to none
In 215 series, only 4 teams have come back down 3 games to none
