PITTSBURGH (AP) — Connor Dewar, Kris Letang and Elmer Soderblom scored and the Pittsburgh Penguins avoided elimination for the second time in 48 hours with a 3-2 win over Philadelphia in Game 5 of their first-round series on Monday night.
Sidney Crosby shook off a shot to his left knee to add two assists for the Penguins, who cut the Flyers lead in the best-of-seven series to 3-2.
Game 6 is Wednesday in Philadelphia, where the pressure will be on the Flyers to avoid putting themselves in danger of becoming just the fifth team in NHL history to blow a series after winning the first three games.
Alex Bump scored his first goal of the playoffs for Philadelphia, who rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie it on Travis Sanheim’s second goal of the series 15:06 into the second.
Crosby, who limped to the bench and then to the training room for treatment minutes earlier after a blast from the point by teammate Ryan Shea appeared to hit the top of his left knee, helped put the Penguins back in front just over two minutes later when he fed the puck to Letang at the top of the Philadelphia zone.
Letang sent a shot toward Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar that sailed wide of the net before bouncing back toward Vladar. The puck smacked off Vladar’s left pad, then his right and across the goal line to give Pittsburgh the lead for good.
After four games of mostly low-event hockey, Game 5 started with a frantic pace, a style that favors the Penguins, who finished as the NHL’s third-highest-scoring team during the regular season.
That offense went largely missing while Pittsburgh fell into a 3-0 hole. Pushed to the brink, it has returned with a flourish, and this time it wasn’t just Crosby, Letang and Evgeni Malkin shouldering the burden.
Soderblom scored on Pittsburgh’s first shot, taking a pass from Anthony Mantha originally intended for Ben Kindel and banging it home from the slot to give the Penguins the lead just 2:45 into the game. Dewar doubled it 3:17 into the second when his shot from the left circle rifled over Vladar’s right shoulder.
Bump needed just 12 seconds to cut the deficit to one when he bore in on Arturs Silovs and jammed it by the goaltender. Sanheim’s shot from the left circle, one that deflected off Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson, drew the Flyers even, but only briefly.
There was little space in the third period, with the Penguins clogging up shooting lanes to send the series back to the eastern side of the state.
Pittsburgh will take the ice on Wednesday, having all the momentum after two games in which they looked like the resilient, resourceful group that was among the NHL’s biggest surprises.
The Flyers and their late playoff surge were one of the others, though Philadelphia and its young core will have the difficult task of finishing off a more experienced group with Hall of Famers scattered across the roster.
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