Crosby Stops Flyers With OT Winner

Crosby makes Flyers pay price
Scores twice, including overtime winner
Thursday, November 17, 2005
By Dave Molinari, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PHILADELPHIA -- This is not the final game the Penguins will win this season.
They might even have a victory that will be more satisfying. Maybe. Sometime.

But it will be a long time before they pay a higher price for a victory. Heck, if the Penguins (6-8-6) had gotten a point for every X-ray and ice bag they went through before, during and after their 3-2 overtime decision against Philadelphia at the Wachovia Center last night, they would have wrapped up a playoff spot.
"A lot of guys were giving their all, paying a price," winger Ryan Malone said. "You saw a lot of guys sacrificing their bodies."

Sidney Crosby, already established as a villain-in-training in this city, secured his status by pulling in a lead pass from Malone, breaking in alone on Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki and beating him on the stick side with 46.7 seconds left in overtime for the winner.
The loss snapped the Flyers' nine-game, home-ice winning streak and was a fair reward for the Penguins' most inspired -- and inspiring -- effort of the season.

That included a 45-save performance by goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who started only because Jocelyn Thibault was struck in the throat by a Konstantin Koltsov shot in warmups.
Thibault spent most of his night at a hospital; Fleury spent much of his making the Penguins regret that he'll probably be going back to Wilkes-Barre in the next few days. Even Fleury, recalled last week after Sebastien Caron was injured, figures he's headed back to the Baby Penguins.
"I don't know," he said. "Probably. I don't have any control over that."

Caron is about to come off the injured-reserve list and, happily for the Penguins, Thibault apparently won't have to go on it.
"I had a tough time breathing," Thibault said. "I thought I could suck it up and play, but the doctors said it was best for me not to play. It's still swollen, but it's feeling better."

Thibault probably was the Penguins' most serious casualty, but hardly their only one. They entered the game without forward Mario Lemieux (stomach virus) and defenseman Sergei Gonchar (groin), and Crosby, Ryan Whitney and Ric Jackman, among others, were hurt in the game.

Crosby needed stitches in his lip, courtesy of a high-stick in the face from Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher. Jackman was hobbled by a Mike Knuble shot off his left foot while killing a penalty late in the second period, and Whitney took a Kim Johnsson shot off his right hand early in the third.
Whitney had a bag of ice strapped to his hand after the game and was awaiting word on whether his hand was broken.

His injury didn't hurt quite as much as it might have, however, if Crosby hadn't come off the bench with less than a minute to go in overtime, just about the time Malone was getting control of the puck in the Penguins' zone and trying to decide what to do with it.

"I just turned and looked, and Sid was wide open at center ice," Malone said. "I was wondering where the far [defenseman, Dennis Seidenberg] was, but I didn't see anybody, so I just tried to fire it up ice as fast as I could. Then, I just sat there and enjoyed the moment."

Crosby pulled in the long pass from Malone and charged into the Flyers' zone, searching for an opening large enough to accommodate a puck.
"I was just looking for net, looking for something to shoot at," Crosby said. "[Niittymaki] came out far, so there wasn't a lot to shoot at at the start, but he backed up pretty fast."

Not as fast as the puck went past him, however, to give Crosby his second of the night and ninth of the season.

The winner was nice revenge for a series of run-ins with Hatcher, who felled Crosby with a stick to the face at 14:01 of the second, then got him in the neck with a similar blow when Crosby returned a few minutes later.

The referees didn't see fit to penalize Hatcher for either high stick, but did give Crosby an unsportsmanlike conduct for complaining about the non-calls.
"[Hatcher] got away with one, then the next shift I come out and get another one," Crosby said. "I was surprised he got away with two. Obviously, [the official] didn't like what I said, so I got two minutes."

That didn't hurt the Penguins, though, and they broke a scoreless tie when Malone, back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch two nights earlier, converted a feed from Crosby during a power play at 2:03 of the third.

Crosby made the score 2-0 during a scramble 56 seconds later, but the Flyers countered with power-play goals by Joni Pitkanen at 5:10 and 6:44. Fleury stopped the 30 shots that preceded Pitkanen's first goal, and the 13 that followed his second.
And Crosby made sure Fleury -- and the rest of his teammates -- were rewarded for their work.

"Guys battled hard," Crosby said. "This is a tough place to play. And we came in here and held our own."
And then put an ice bag on it.

(Dave Molinari can be reached at 412-263-1144.)

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