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Crosby's late goal lifts Penguins over Flyers

Feb 21, 2009 - 10:30 PM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins were handed a gift Saturday, courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Martin Biron.

Crosby scored the game-winning goal with 2:45 remaining following a major gaffe by Biron as the Penguins edged the Flyers, 5-4, for their second straight win under interim coach Dan Bylsma.

After a wild third period in which Pittsburgh squandered leads of 3-1 and 4-3, Biron strayed far out of his net to make a sliding stop on Pascal Dupuis.

Fearful of a delay of game penalty, Biron dropped the puck at his feet, where it was corralled by Dupuis.

"You can't blame the goalie," Crosby said. "He's not trying to draw a penalty. He was trying to get rid of it so we didn't get a power play. I think that Dupes had a chance at a breakaway. Lucky for us, he made a good play to pressure and I got open."

With Biron badly out of position, Dupuis passed into the slot to Crosby, who chipped the puck into an open net for his second goal of the game that snapped a 4-4 tie.

"When Biron got rid of it, I went to the net thinking that Dupes was going to get to it first," Crosby said. "I knew that he was going to direct it to the net Biron was so far our that I just re-directed it."

"I decided to rush the puck," Biron added. "When you're able to do that, it's good because your able to get a poke check. This time I covered it, and you can't do that. I tried to get rid of it and made a bad play. It was a good play to get there but it was a bad play to try and cover it up."

Crosby also recorded a pair of assists, and the four-point game gave him 45 points in 22 career contests against the Flyers.

Despite blowing a pair of third-period leads, the Penguins climbed within two points of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"We didn't want to give up that lead but we kept pace," Crosby said. "We kept being aggressive. We kept coming at them and we got rewarded for it."

Crosby also assisted on Ruslan Fedotenko's goal - his second of the game - that gave the Penguins a 4-3 lead with 10:10 remaining.

The lead held up until Philadelphia's Mike Knuble tied it 4:35 later.

"It is a new system and a new style of play (under Bylsma)," Fedotenko said. "We're still trying to be aggressive while trying to learn new things. We'll have breakdowns and it is a game of mistakes. Sometimes it happens and we need to make sure it doesn't happen again."

With a 3-1 advantage, the Penguins looked to put away the contest when they went on the power play 2:14 into the third period.

However, Philadelphia's dangerous penalty-killing unit struck again as Mike Richards scored on a breakaway for his league-high seventh shorthanded goal of the season at 3:07. It was Philadelphia's league-leading 16th shorthanded goal.

"He anticipates as well as anyone in the game," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "Their guy had one play and he was trying to go D to D. 'Ritchie' read it and was all over it. If you get the puck turned over there, you are off to the races."

Richards' goal turned around the momentum, and the Flyers' pulled even when Braydon Coburn's blast from the right blue line at 6:37 deflected in off the skate of Pittsburgh defenseman Rob Scuderi.

After Philadelphia's Joffrey Lupul opened the scoring with 9:29 left in the first period, Crosby tied it just 21 seconds into the second, igniting a three-goal period for Pittsburgh.

"We got goals from different people and we got big efforts from a lot of different areas," Byslma said. "We got two points in a very difficult building and we'll move on from that one."