PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - Nicholas Robertson scores twice, the Pens light up the Flyers 7-0 in the season opener Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
Robertson opened the scoring with 12:30 to play in the opening period. Sidney Crosby got rocked by Rasmus Ristolainen but bounced right back up and set up the offense. Crosby made a pass to Kris Letang, Letang threw the puck to Robertson and he deflected it in for the goal.
The Flyers made a line change and got burned by it. Sam Girard fed a pass to a wide open Ville Koivunen on a breakaway for a five-hole score to extend the lead 2-0 Pittsburgh after the first period.
With 14:57 in the second period, the Pens scored on the power play to go ahead 3-0. Hendrix Lapierre set up Evgeni Malkin for a one-timer over Dan Vladar's glove for the goal.
Lapierre wristed one past Valadar stick side making it a 4-0 Penguins lead with 12:34 to play in the second period.
"The puck came loose and I was like oh now it's mine! I saw a hole and I was going to pass to Ville but I decided to test my luck and you know, got lucky. Just a really nice play by Hally (Hallander)," said Lapierre.
Filip Hållander got a rebound in front of the net after a Vladar save and put it in the net. The Pens scored three goals in 5 minutes and 3 seconds. Hållander missed 68 regular season games and the playoffs last year due to a blood clot in his leg. Muse talked about how great it was to see him score.
"It was awesome. You could feel it from the bench, you could feel it after the game, he's just a guy you root for, so much after everything he went through and then all the work he put in. He never had a bad day, that's the thing with him, I saw it first hand he's come to the rink all last year in a tough situation and not once did he have a bad day. He just came to work. I can't tell you how excited as a staff we are for him," said Muse.
With 8:07 in the third period, the Pens scored shorthanded as Robertson scored his second goal of the game and the Pens went ahead 6-0. Egor Chinakov added another with 3:18 in the game.
"From having contributions throughout the lineup. I think there was work there both ends of the ice, goaltending, Arty was outstanding, special teams contributions, it's a good start," said head coach Dan Muse. "Things come quick, obviously wanted to start the right way, I credit the work those guys did in training camp and their preparation, that's a work from them and how we gotta make sure we're taking steps as we're moving forward this week."
"It's important, I think you want to feel good about your game. You want to make sure the habits are there early, obviously everyone is going to try to improve as the season goes on but when you have a short camp and unique circumstances this year with kind of a shorter than usual type of thing. You want to make sure you're on the same page as much as possible. I thought for the most we did a good job of that," said Sidney Crosby.
Artūrs Šilovs made 19 saves on 19 shots. He earned the shutout and the win. Per Penguins PR, this was his second consecutive season opener shutout for the Penguins. Only two goaltenders in NHL history have more shutouts in season opening games. Glenn Hll and Jacques Plante both had 3.
"I think it meant a lot for us, we had a bitter taste after the playoffs and you know, season opener against the same team that knocked us out, everyone knew this was a great opportunity for pay back and we were ready for that," said Šilovs.
The Pens are back in action Saturday at home against Montreal.
