Battle of Pennsylvania 08-09: Game 5

With the post-season in jeopardy, the Penguins knew they had to turn things up a few notches against their cross-state rivals. But speaking of turning notches, the Philadelphia based Comcast network erroneously switched their #29 and #226 channels in the Pittsburgh area to the Sunshine Network of Florida, causing the viewers in Pittsburgh to rush to the phones and complain.

The Penguins looked like a different team than the one that played weeks earlier. They stared down the Canadians on Thursday night, but knew that it wouldn't mean much if they came up short again Saturday afternoon.

The Flyers packed their arena with almost 20,000 screaming fans making it a record attendance in Flyers franchise history. But right from the opening period, the fans booed Crosby each time he touched the puck. And with the first strike on the scoreboard, Jeffery Lupul threw a backhanded shot that left Fleury guessing. The rest of the period went on with the Flyers leading 1-0. Also in the period, a Flyer player took a questionable dive, a delayed reaction, that cost J-Staal 2 minutes for tripping.

In the second period, Sid Crosby corrected the scoring imbalance 21 seconds into the 2nd period. Malkin also followed up with a goal of his own. And former Flyer Fedotenko gave the Penguins a comfortable lead 3-1. The question now stood weather a Blysma coached team would be comfortable or continue to attack the Flyers net. The answer would help solve the riddle of the Penguins struggling season.

In the 3rd period, Mike Richards did what he does best and well-timed a pass intercept taking the puck by himself to the other end. 3-2. Coburn would make it 3-3 and pull all the momentum to the Flyers favor. But at the half-way point, Fedotenko would again haunt his former team with yet another goal of his own. The Flyers still wouldn't give up, leaving Mike Knuble, a reliable Penguin-killer, to once again tie the game up at 4-4.

What happened at the end of the game would have to be a miracle play that will positively be discussed for future post game analysis. Martin Biron left his goal crease, tried scooping it up, but somehow fumbled it over his shoulders. Dupuis was quick to chip it ahead to a waiting Crosby in the slot where he scored the winning goal.

The Penguins are still 4 points out of the 8th spot for the playoffs, but with 2 key wins in their pocket, they will soon climb up the ladder one rung and game at a time.

[Via: Yahoo! Sports]