Philadelphia Flyers overwhelm Pittsburgh Penguins

PHILADELPHIA – Ryan White couldn’t help but be miffed Wednesday when even after his Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, the sore losers rubbed it in that the Flyers wouldn’t be in this year’s playoffs.

White is no stranger to the trash talking game. For some reason, this one stung.

So when the Flyers beat the Penguins for the second time in a week, this time 4-1 Sunday afternoon, White took extra pleasure in it.

“It’s my first year being here, but from being here one year you realize we don’t like the Penguins,” said White, who scored his sixth goal of the season Sunday. “It was good to beat them twice in the same week here. That’s the only thing we can play for right now is trying to put a little bit of a damper on other teams’ things.”

It was actually a huge game for Pittsburgh. They have now dropped three straight, are tied with the Boston Bruins for the wild card and have the Ottawa Senators knocking on the door not far behind.

Even though the Flyers have swept the season series from Pittsburgh for the first time in 31 years, the motivation was more to see if they could get the Penguins on the golf course early, too.

“It was a motivation before the game,” Sean Couturier admitted. “You see them slipping down the standings a little bit and they lost again (Saturday) and we know if we beat them and Ottawa wins, they’re only two or three points behind and you never know.

“Maybe a little gutty talking about that.”

It wasn’t like Pittsburgh fell flat against the Flyers. The Penguins took control of the game early and badly outshot the Flyers. The momentum was unfounded until Brandon Sutter lit the lamp. Flyers goalie Steve Mason was very good, making 21 of his 46 saves in the first period alone.

“Yeah that’s the most shots I’ve faced in one period in a long time but it gets you into it,” Mason said. “I was feeling good going into the second period. We gave up a lot of shots but to the guys’ credit right to the last minute they were blocking shots, sacrificing themselves. I give a lot of guys credit for that.”

As has been a trend the last couple years, the Flyers got under the Penguins’ skin. When Jake Voracek scored on the Flyer’s fourth shot of the game and erased all of Pittsburgh’s momentum, the Flyers had the upper hand and never looked back.

“I don’t know if it’s in their head, but there’s just hatred out there,” said Mason, whose 46 saves tied a season high and put him in a tie for second place in the league in save percentage with Devan Dubnyk. “Guys generally don’t like each other and there’s a lot of words exchanged out there. They’re some of the best games to be part of because of the intensity level of them.”

The wins don’t hurt, either. After Voracek’s 22nd goal of the season, Brayden Schenn and White beat Penguins backup goalie Thomas Greiss. Michael Del Zotto added one more for good measure with 9.3 seconds left in the game.

Chants of “You can’t beat us!” rained down from the Wells Fargo Center crowd.

“It’s unfortunate that we won’t be in the playoffs because of the atmosphere that we have in this arena,” Mason said. “We got some of the best fans that support you and they love when the Penguins come to town. They’re part of the reason the rivalry is what it is because they’re part of getting under their skin.”

The irony is that it may the case that Pittsburgh actually needs the Flyers to beat the Senators next Saturday in the season finale.

“We know what they are fighting for,” Schenn said. “We’re in a spoiler role right now and trying to make life miserable on them.”

Dave Isaac writes for the (Cherry Hill) Courier-Post.