PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins just won’t die.
For a second consecutive game facing elimination, the Penguins scratched and clawed their way back into the series and beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in Game 5 on home ice on Monday night.
Game 6 of a suddenly fascinating series will take place on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
The old guys played a big role in keeping the Penguins alive in this one. Defenseman Kris Letang, for a second consecutive night, scored the winning goal — an absolute stunner — and captain Sidney Crosby again assisted on it.
After a slow start to the series, Crosby has four points in the past two games, including a couple of helpers against the Flyers in Game 5.
Elmer Söderblom and Connor Dewar also scored for the Penguins, while Artūrs Šilovs earned the victory in net for the second consecutive game.
Travis Sanheim and Alex Bump scored for the Flyers, who were silent offensively for most of the third period before a frantic surge in the final two minutes. Šilovs and the Penguins were able to hold them off, and they live to fight another day.
Here’s what we saw in Game 5.
Pittsburgh’s bottom-six revival
The Penguins entered this game with only one goal from their bottom-six forwards in this series: Dewar’s empty-netter in Game 4.
Monday night was a little different.
Anthony Mantha, the Penguins’ leading goal scorer this season who has struggled mightily in this series, helped Pittsburgh open the scoring. Early in the first period, while on a forecheck, he collected the puck behind the net and set up Söderblom, who scored his first career playoff goal.
Dewar then scored his second goal of the series. With the Penguins surging and in the middle of a line change, Crosby found Dewar streaking down the left wing, and his rocket beat Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar.
The Penguins were the third-highest-scoring team in the NHL during the regular season, largely because of their scoring depth. It finally showed up.
Vladar error leads to lucky Penguins goal
It wasn’t as egregious as the Penguins’ second goal in Game 4, when Vladar was pressured into a turnover leading to Rickard Rakell’s score, but Letang’s fortunate bounce off the glass behind the Flyers’ net was still a misplay. Vladar failed to snag the soft floater from the point by Letang and didn’t pick up where the puck went from there, as it slid between his pads. In hindsight, Vladar probably would have been better off just staying in his net and letting the shot sail past him.
Vladar hasn’t been awful in either of the past two games, but he hasn’t outplayed Šilovs, nullifying what should be an advantage for the Flyers in the series.
Šilovs sequel
It was a wild night for Šilovs, who started his second consecutive game after sitting for the first three in the series. He was brilliant in the first period, when the Penguins took the lead even as the Flyers enjoyed the better of the play for most of the opening 20 minutes.
Šilovs’ second period, though, wasn’t so great. He allowed what could politely be described as a soft goal to Alex Bump, and making matters worse, the goal came only 12 seconds after Dewar had given the Penguins a 2-0 advantage.
He was then the victim of poor luck when Travis Sanheim’s bad-angle shot was inadvertently deflected by Erik Karlsson, going just inside the post to even the score.
Still, Šilovs did enough to earn the win, stopping 18 of 20 shots on goal.
Crosby hurts knee
Crosby left the game briefly in the second period after teammate Ryan Shea’s shot belted him on the right knee.
He was in clear pain and raced off the ice before departing down the tunnel toward the locker room. After a couple of minutes, Crosby returned — while limping — and witnessed Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim’s tying goal from the bench.
However, Crosby returned and produced his second assist of the evening on Letang’s wild goal later in the second period.
Crosby has faced knee problems a few times this season, starting with the Olympics, where a hit from Radko Gudas knocked him out for a month. He also missed a game late in the regular season after getting his knee banged up in Ottawa.
Crosby was able to finish Monday’s game.
Bump replaces Michkov, scores
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet made headlines for removing Matvei Michkov from the lineup after four ineffective games for the second-year forward. But it didn’t take very long for his decision to insert Bump into the series to look like the right one, as Bump was arguably the Flyers’ top forward in Game 5.
Just 12 seconds after the Penguins had taken a 2-0 second-period lead, Bump gained the blue line and cut around Parker Wotherspoon before sneaking a shot through Šilovs at 3:29. Bump, who also generated a dangerous chance on his first shift a little over a minute into the game, finished with a team-high four shots on goal.
We’ll see if Tocchet finds a way to get Michkov, who’s scoreless with just four shots on goal in the series, back into the lineup for Game 6. But if he does, it’s almost certainly not going to be instead of Bump.
Flyers struggle with Penguins’ forecheck
The Penguins’ first two goals were a direct result of their aggressive forecheck. Rasmus Ristolainen was bodied off the puck behind the Flyers’ net by Mantha, who found Söderblom in the slot to open the scoring. Early in the second, it was Owen Tippett’s egregious turnover that led to Pittsburgh’s second goal by Dewar.
That wasn’t the case early in the first, as the Flyers controlled the first few minutes for the first time in the series — something Tocchet mentioned before the game as a point of emphasis.
“We kind of put our foot in the water and see the temperature,” Tocchet said of the first few games of the series. “We want to dive in.”
They did just that, leading to some dangerous chances by Bump, Denver Barkey and Tippett, but still couldn’t grab the lead. The Flyers have yet to score in the first period of the series, while surrendering three goals to the Penguins.
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