The Penguins remained undefeated on home ice these playoffs as they downed the Flyers 4-2 last night at the Igloo.  The first period was not indicative of the whole game - a period in which say five of the six goals scored.

In the first, Petr Sykora (5) started the scoring early.  At 6:19 he deeked to his backhand and roofed a puck over Biron to put the Penguins up 1-0.  But then the Flyers stormed back and the Penguins let their guard down allowing Mike Richards to score twice and put them in the hole.

This has been a theme a couple of times during these playoffs in that a few minutes of sloughing off result in the Penguins having to scratch and claw their way out of a hole.  Sidney Crosby (3) however answered Richards second goal with one of his own less than a minute and a half later to knot the game at 2-2 and then with just seven seconds left in the period, Malkin (7) scored as he fired a shot to the far side of the net past Biron to make it 3-2 Pens.

From that point on, the Flyers looked shellshocked.  They had seen the firepower of the Penguins all season but now in the playoffs it seemed to deflate them.  They played well for spurts as the game continued but couldn’t muster any sustained force.  And after Malkin (8) scored short handed at 4:50 into the second period it was an even bigger nail in their coffin.

On the penalty kill Malkin went deep behind the Flyers net chasing his own rebound.  He was plastered into the boards and was slow to get up as the Flyers rushed back but they lost the puck and Gonchar picked it up and threw the puck back to a waiting Malkin who had just made it back to the Flyers blue line.  He skated in alone, slowed (like on his failed penalty shot against New York) but cranked up a shot that Biron only heard whistle by him.

The game was fairly clean until near the end and the Flyers started to let their frustrations show.  They had taken only one penalty until 18:32 of the third when Upshall took a cross check and game misconduct and Hatcher took a roughing call.  Then at 19:55 Coburn took a hook.  Those penalties all but ended any chance of a comeback in the waining moments.

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots and the two goals he did allow, while partly his fault for not covering the puck effectively, were also partly the fault of his teammates for not clearing the puck as well.

The Penguins avoided going behind the eight ball by winning the first game of the series on home ice and are now preparing for Game 2 at 7:30 Sunday night.