Box Score (Courtesy of ESPN.com)
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| Flyers.NHL.com, Getty Images |
Nearly one week later, the Flyers were back in Pittsburgh for their final game of the 2011-2012 regular season, before they have to prepare to play the Penguins again in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs next week.
Early in the game, it was clear that there was still bad blood between the two.
The Penguin's Joe Vitale injured both Nicklas Grossmann and Danny Briere in last week's game.
In the first period Harry Zolnierczyk, who was recently called up from Adirondack, was looking to return the favor and fought Vitale.
In the same period, Zac Rinaldo hit Pittsburgh's Zbynek Michalek from behind, which resulted in a five-minute major and a 10-minute game misconduct for Rinaldo. Plus, there is a good chance that Brendan Shanahan will suspend Rinaldo for at least one playoff game.
But when Pittsburgh pulled ahead 4-2, the tension seemed to fade.
There was one more game misconduct given to Jody Shelley two minutes into the third, but with that said, the game was not well officiated.
The bad officiating was completely evident in the second period, when Jaromir Jagr was called for hooking. Jagr's stick got caught in the jersey of Kris Letang but Letang was able to sell as hooking to the refs, even though Jagr was telling them that his stick was caught.
The call cost the Flyers, because Sideny Crosby (8) scored on the power play to put the Penguins up 3-2 (17:54).
With time winding down in the second, Evgeni Malkin scored his 50th goal of the season (19:48) to put the Penguins up 4-2.
There was no scoring in the third period, so the Penguins won by a final of 4-2.
Pittsburgh's Pascal Dupuis opened up the scoring in the first period with his 25th goal of the season (5:33). Dupuis' goal extended his point streak to 17 consecutive games, the longest point streak in the NHL this season.
Brayden Schenn (12, 19:07) tied the game up for the Flyers with less than a minute left in the first.
Chris Kunitz (26, 7:15) put the Penguins back up 2-1 in the second.
Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury played only 12 minutes of the second period, before he was pulled for the backup Brent Johnson, who played the reaminder of the game.
Fleury saved 14 of the Flyer's 15 shots on goal in his 32 minutes of ice time.
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| Flyers.NHL.com, Getty Images |
Sergei Bobrovsky got the start in goal on Saturday. He made 19 saves off of 23 shots on goal.
The loss to the Penguins ends the Flyer's streak of five straight wins at the Consol Energy Center, since the arena opened.
The Flyers finish the season with a record of 47-26-9 with a total of 103 points. They are fifth in the Eastern Conference and third in the Atlantic Divsion.
The Stanley Cup Playoff's Quarter Finals begin on Wednesday, April 11th. The official schedule will be released on Sunday, April 8th at 1:00 PM eastern time.
The Flyer's will begin their playoff series in Pittsburgh, as the fourth seeded Penguins are ranked one spot higher than Philadelphia.
Extra Notes: Though still day-to-day with a knee injury, defenseman Nicklas Grossmann is confident that he will be ready for the Flyer's first playoff game. Grossmann recently agreed to a multi-year contract extension with the Flyers, that is reported to be for four-years and worth $14 million. It is still uncertain if forward Danny Briere will be ready for the start of the playoffs as well. Briere is listed as out indefinitely with an upper-back contusion. Forward James Van Rimesdyk and defenseman Andrej Mezsaros will still be out for a few more weeks after they had foot and back surgery respectively.
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