Sidney Crosby had three points, including the game-winning goal, against the Flyers at PPG Paints Arena Friday evening.
It was the most stunning development in Western Pennsylvania since the region experienced an overcast day in winter that featured the sun setting in the west.
OK, maybe a bit less surprising than that.
Crosby, you see, has treated the Flyers like his personal pinata since he broke into the league in 2005; he has 43 goals and 62 assists in 70 career regular-season games against them. Of those 43 goals, six are game-winners -- including three of the past half-dozen the Penguins have gotten in overtime against Philadelphia.
The most recent came 55 seconds into the extra period Friday, when Crosby beat Flyers goalie Brian Elliott from the right circle to give the Penguins a 4-3 victory. It was the 62nd overall game-winner of his career:
"He certainly makes big plays at big times," Jack Johnson said.
That Crosby would get the goal that decides the game might not have been a surprise, but the simple fact that the Penguins were able to extend the game beyond the third period was. For even though they'd owned a two-goal lead with under four minutes remaining in the second period, the Penguins wilted after the Flyers exploited a Kris Letang giveaway to pull within a goal late in the second, then steamrolled the Penguins for much of the third.
"We felt like we were hanging on a bit," Crosby said.
Yeah. By the tips of their fingernails. Philadelphia had a 17-4 advantage in shots during the third, but the only one that eluded Tristan Jarry was a Scott Laughton redirection that tied the game at 2:20:
While Jarry was stretching and straining to keep the Penguins in the game, Elliot's biggest challenge during the last 20 minutes of regulation likely was trying to resist the temptation to have a pizza delivered to his crease.
"We totally dominated that period," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "We didn't give them anything ... Should have been able to finish it off in regulation. ... I thought that in the third, we were the much better team."
That's a pretty fair assessment, although the Penguins contended that most of their issues then were self-inflicted.
"I think we let off the gas a little bit," Jared McCann said. "We let the break catch up to us."
Fortunately for them, Jarry didn't.
"Things got sloppy there in the third," Johnson said. "But our goaltender stood tall."
That was particularly true as regulation was winding down; Jarry stopped James van Riemsdyk from between the hash marks with a bit more than four minutes to go in regulation and denied Kevin Hayes on a partial breakaway during the last minute.
"He made some real big saves for us, especially in the last 10 minutes of the period that gave us an opportunity to get to overtime," Mike Sullivan said. "That's what he's been doing for us. It's hard to win in this league when you don't get that timely save, and he made a number of them in the third period for us."
Pleased as the Penguins were with the way Jarry kept them in the game, they had to be equally happy with their power play, which scored on both of its chances.
How important is it that they be productive with the man-advantage? Well, consider that the Penguins are 17-2-2 this season when getting at least one goal out of their power play.
And when they operate with the extra man as effectively as they did against the Flyers, it's reasonable to believe that the Penguins can generate a power-play goal in the majority of their remaining games.
"I thought we supported the puck," Sullivan said. "We won puck battles. We didn't force things. We took what they gave us. They're a high-pressure kill, and I thought the guys did a great job. There was a lot of movement. ... When the puck's moving and people are moving, that's when our power play is at its best, and I thought there was a lot of motion tonight."
The Penguins got both of their power-play goals, by Bryan Rust and Letang, during the second period:
Philadelphia, which went 1-for-3 with the extra man, scored its man-advantage goal on the last of its four shots in the opening period, when the Penguins managed a total of three on Elliott.
"For the first two periods, it was just a tight game," Crosby said. "Both teams were playing tight."
The Penguins' offense actually began to assert itself during the second period, when it scored on three of 12 shots, and the Flyers responded in kind during the final 24 or so minutes of regulation.
"They got a little momentum after they scored their second goal," Jarry said. "And they just kept coming."
Even so, Philadelphia never was able to get a lead after the Penguins wiped out its 1-0 advantage, even though it controlled the third period.
"We weren't at our best in the third, for whatever reason," Justin Schultz said. "But we found a way to get the two points, and that's all that matters."
Yeah, they found a way. The same one the Penguins have used dozens of times during the past 15 seasons: They got the puck to Sidney Crosby.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Nick Bjugstad (core muscle surgery)
• Brian Dumoulin (ankle surgery)
• Jake Guentzel (shoulder surgery)
• Dominik Kahun (concussion)
THE LINEUPS
Sullivan’s lines and pairings:
McCann-Crosby-Simon
Rust-Malkin-Hornqvist
Aston-Reese-Blueger-Tanev
Galchenyuk-Agozzino-Angello
Johnson-Letang
Pettersson-Marino
Ruhwedel-Schultz
And for Vigneault's Flyers:
van Riemsdyk-Giroux-Konecny
Raffl-Couturier-Voracek
Laughton-Hayes-Farabee
Pitlick-Bunnaman-Aube-Kubel
Provorov-Niskanen
Sanheim-Myers
Hagg-Braun
THE SCHEDULE
The Penguins are scheduled to practice at noon at Cranberry before traveling to Washington for a game against the Capitals Sunday at 12:38 p.m. They then will head south for games at Tampa Thursday and Florida Saturday.
THE COVERAGE
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PHOTO GALLERY
Penguins vs. Flyers, Jan. 31, 2020, PPG Paints Arena. - GETTY