Pittsburgh Penguins Throwback Thursday – Pens Vs. Flyers April 25, 2009
By Mike Necciai
In our first edition of Pittsburgh Penguins Throwback Thursday, we’ll visit what would eventually become a pivotal game in the Pens’ Stanley Cup run in 2009.
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As we expect with a playoff series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, the 2009 conference quarter-finals were nasty, physical, and a lot of fun to watch. It was a fairly high-scoring series that epitomized what a hockey rivalry should consist of.
The Pens opened the series with two straight wins, outscoring the Flyers by a 7-3 margin in games one and two. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were only beginning their reign of terror of the NHL post-season and tallied eight points between them in just two games. However, the Flyers weren’t going to roll over and accept defeat that easily.
Game three saw the Flyers roar back into the series with a convincing 6-3 victory. Daniel Briere showed up in a big way as he always did against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and Claude Giroux also tallied two points in that victory. There wasn’t necessarily panic among Pens fans, but you could definitely sense the fact that everyone knew this series wasn’t going to be a cake walk.
The teams split the next two games, and the Pittsburgh Penguins eventually found themselves one win away from closing the series out in six games. Everyone knew that this series would take a toll on them physically, so ending it as soon as possible was the best case scenario for obvious reasons.
Unfortunately, game six was in Philadelphia and the Flyers weren’t willing concede victory to the Pens. The Flyers looked better in the first half of game six than they had looked throughout the rest of the series, and Pittsburgh Penguins had no answer. Eventually, while playing for their playoff lives, the Flyers were up 3-0 and the Pens looked frustrated. It seemed all but certain there would be a game seven in Pittsburgh.
Of course, we all know what happened next.
Max Talbot, as expected, was annihilated by Daniel Carcillo. However, Carcillo had no reason to even acknowledge Talbot here and likely costed his team a chance to force game seven. Instead, the Pittsburgh Penguins were energized, looking at Talbot and wondering why they weren’t all battling to that extent, and simply took over the game and series at that point.
The Pens struck quickly en route to five straight goals and a 5-3 victory. The game was over, and so was the Flyers’ season. It isn’t often that a fight can change the course of a game, let alone a series, but that’s exactly what happened here.
The rest is history, as the Pittsburgh Penguins went on to defeat the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals to win the franchise’s third Cup. That playoff run was one for the ages, as it also contained a seven game series against the Washington Capitals that showcased both Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. A series that I would consider one of the best in Pittsburgh Penguins history and one that we’ll likely visit in this segment. For now, I’ll leave you with the rest of the highlights from this absurdly entertaining game six.
Next: Is Sidney Crosby Still the Best in the NHL?