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Sabourin, Penguins top Flyers in shootout

Nov 14, 2008 - 5:03 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Defenseman Alex Goligoski scored in the sixth round of the shootout and Dany Sabourin stopped all six attempts he faced in the bonus format as the Pittsburgh Penguins emerged with a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

Pittsburgh jumped a 3-0 lead early in the second period but needed captain Sidney Crosby's second goal of the game with 2:33 left in the third just to get the game to overtime.

On his first career shootout attempt, Goligoski beat goaltender Martin Martin after a nifty deke, giving Pittsburgh a 1-0 edge.

"It was probably the best feeling after scoring a goal I've ever had," Goligoski said. "It's a move I've done before. I thought about if something was open to shoot, I would have shot, but yeah, I kind of knew what I was doing."

Sabourin then watched Scott Hartnell lose control of the puck on the Flyers' last opportunity, sealing the victory.

Sabourin, who came on to start the third period in place of Marc-Andre Fleury and stopped all 10 shots he faced in 25 minutes of action, made a brilliant save on Philadelphia captain Mike Richards in the second round of the bonus format. He reached back with his stick and cleared the puck off the goal line after Richards failed to lift it, keeping the Flyers off the board.

"It's something I practiced in the summer," Sabourin said of facing breakaways. "I tried to come out a little bit further so when they come, they don't have the opportunity to shoot, so they have to deke. It's something I added to my game."

Evgeni Malkin recorded a goal and an assist, Matt Cooke also scored and Petr Sykora set up a pair of tallies for Pittsburgh, which won its fifth game in a row.

Simon Gagne netted two shorthanded goals and Jeff Carter and Joffrey Lupul also scored during the final 12:14 of the second period for Philadelphia, which has lost four of five.

"That was a tough game to play emotionally, because of the game in Detroit (a 7-6 overtime win on Tuesday)," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said. "We found a way to get a three-goal lead. Our power play was not good, and it gave them an opportunity to get back into the game. We were overthinking offensively."

Cooke gave the Penguins the lead at 7:06 of the first period with a wrist shot from above the left faceoff circle that beat Biron to the glove side for his first goal of the season.

Pittsburgh's pair of young superstars extended the advantage to 3-0 with impressive goals 2:40 apart early in the second period.

First, Malkin took a feed from Ruslan Fedotenko and lifted a backhander past Biron 71 seconds into the session to extend his points streak to a career-high 12 games.

Crosby scored his first of the game on the power play at 3:51. After receiving a pass from Sykora, Crosby netted his fifth goal of the season on a nearly identical play, backhanding the puck just under the crossbar.

Philadelphia coach John Stevens called a timeout at that point, and it seemed to work as the momentum completed shifted for the remainder of the period.

"We are playing well. It's just self-inflicted wounds right now," Stevens said. "Every goal they got, we had the puck. I thought our guys did a great job getting back, and the fourth goal, we had the puck as well. It's unfortunate because I thought we played a good hockey game. We have to learn from those mistakes and eliminate them to win hockey games."

Carter scored his 10th of the season on a one-timer off a pass from Hartnell at 7:46. Just 66 seconds later, and after Hartnell had been penalized for charging, Gagne blocked a shot, picked up the loose puck and beat Fleury on a breakaway at 8:52.

With rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa in the box for hooking, Gagne finished a 3-on-1 shorthanded rush by ripping a slap shot from high in the right circle past Fleury with 6:04 remaining in the session.

That five-minute span propelled Gagne into the league lead in shorthanded goals with four. It also gave Philadelphia an NHL-best eight shorthanders this season.

"Five-on-5, we were sharp," Therrien said. "The big thing is the power play. We gave up a huge 2-on-1 and a breakaway while we had a three-goal lead."

The Flyers got another special-teams goal with only four seconds to play in the period, this time on the power play. Lupul was credited with his sixth of the season when he deflected a point shot by blue-liner Kimmo Timonen into the air and over an unsuspecting Fleury for a 4-3 edge.

Crosby's tying goal came after Richards turned over the puck behind his own net. It bounced right in front to the 2007 Hart Trophy winner, who knocked it past Biron for the equalizer.

"We came back from a 3-0 deficit, did a lot of good things," Richards said. "Late in the period, we were doing a lot of good things, and then one mistake against a team that's very opportunistic and it's 4-4. Tough way to lose a game."