Penguins 5, Flyers 4: The arch-enemy extends the losing streak to eight games

When it rains, it pours, and Sidney Crosby continued to rain on the Flyers’ parade as the noted Flyers killer notched the game-winning goal to give the Penguins a 5-4 win in overtime on Monday night to extend the Flyers losing skid to eight games.

The Flyers blew a 3-1 lead in this one, marking the fourth time in their last six games that they’ve squandered a two-goal lead in a loss. Brian Elliott made 47 saves on 52 shots in the losing effort, having to face 21 shots in the final 23 minutes of this one.

Though the Penguins forced the action in the third period and beyond, the Flyers did just about everything you’d expect of a team blowing a two-goal lead late. Bad penalties and turnovers fueled the Penguins’ comeback in this one and highlighted mistakes that were preventable.

There was a nice early chance for the Flyers, but Ivan Provorov’s blast at the 3:09 mark was met by Matt Murray, who then made a couple of nice saves in close as Wayne Simmonds and Danick Martel buzzed shortly after.

Pittsburgh’s first scoring chance would be started by none other than Sidney Crosby, leading the rush and setting up Conor Sheary for a bad angle shot and then a follow-up chance for Patric Hornqvist on a rebound. Brian Elliott was there for both, though, keeping things scoreless six minutes in.

The Flyers would grab the game’s first penalty as Carter Rowney would go off on a minor for slashing Travis Konecny at the eight-minute mark. The power play would be short-lived as Sean Couturier would take a minor just 23 seconds into the man-advantage for a slash in front of the Penguins net.

With 3:57 left in the first it would be the Penguins to strike first as Jake Guentzel picked the blocker-side for his 10th goal of the season to make it 1-0.

Guentzel’s goal would be the lone tally in the first, a period that saw Pittsburgh pepper Brian Elliott with 17 shots. Matt Murray turned aside all 10 Flyers shots at the other end.

The Flyers would get the first chance of the second as Provorov led a two-on-one, but was turned aside by Murray calmly in the first minute.

Back-to-back penalties to Pittsburgh put the Flyers up two men for 1:21, creating a golden chance to tie things up.

Shayne Gostisbehere wasted no time, ripping a one-timer past Murray just a seconds after the two-man advantage started to tie things up at 1-1. Time of the goal came at 3:40 and was assisted by Nolan Patrick, who put it on a tee for Ghost, and Claude Giroux.

With that assist Giroux moved to a tie for ninth on the Flyers’ all-time scoring list with Rod Brind-Amour at 601 career points.

Pittsburgh would get a chance to grab the lead back as Jori Lehtera sent them to a man-advantage with 10:53 left in the middle frame but the Flyers were able to get a key kill and keep a dangerous Penguins power play from getting setup in front of Elliott.

With just 4:55 left in the period the Flyers would grab their first lead of the game thanks to Brandon Manning’s point shot off Travis Konecny to make it 2-1. Michael Raffl and Manning picked assists on the goal, which ended a 13-game goal scoring drought for the second-year forward.

Less than a minute later Matt Murray would be removed after Jake Voracek ended up sliding into the goaltender on a clean breakaway. Voracek made the move but lost an edge and slammed into Murray.

In for the injured Murray, Tristan Jarry came up with a heck of a save to deny Wayne Simmonds but he wasn’t able to survive the last 30 seconds as Sean Couturier fired home his 14th of the season to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead headed to the third.

An Andrew MacDonald penalty put the Penguins on the power play and they didn’t waste any time as Patric Hornqvist —who drew the penalty —scored to make it 3-2 just 1:07 into the third.

Less than a minute later the Penguins would tie things up at 3-3 as Bryan Rust took advantage of a turnover by Shayne Gostisbehere at the Pittsburgh blue line. Rust was denied by Elliott on the initial save but the puck floated up and over the goalie and just crossed the line.

With the team in front of him collapsing Elliott came up with a this time on Rust with 14:02 left after the Flyers defense lost him in front.

Robert Hagg would put the Penguins back on the power play some 20 seconds later, with momentum firmly tilted towards Pittsburgh. A strong penalty kill ensued for the Flyers, culminating with a sprawling save by Elliott.

Down the stretch the Penguins continued to throw pucks toward the Flyers net and Elliott, gaining a massive edge in shots as the third dragged on.

With 3:41 left Michael Raffl’s outstanding individual effort would give the Flyers the lead back at 4-3. Raffl stripped Phil Kessel of the puck and then went to the backhand to put the puck calmly by Jarry for his second of the season.

Elliott would come up with a massive stop on Sidney Crosby with 1:09 left and every Flyer on the ice dead tired following a long, long shift. The Penguins racked up nearly two minutes of zone time and were able to get Jarry off to setup the man-advantage but Elliott was there in the end.

The terrific effort from Elliott would be for naught, as the Penguins would knot things up at 4-4 off the ensuing draw, when a point shot found its way to the back of the net off of Guentzel.

Pittsburgh kept the Flyers pinned in their own zone after the tying goal and drew a delay of game penalty to Jake Voracek that would carry over to the overtime session.

That overtime session was largely thanks to Brian Elliott, who racked up 46 saves in regulation alone in this one.

With 3:12 left it would be Crosby doing in the Flyers as he tipped home a shot to give Pittsburgh the 5-4 win.