Jared McCann celebrates his game-winning goal against the Flyers. -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Penguins

Flyers never had a ghost of a chance ☕️

Oct 30, 2019 • 7:28 am

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They celebrated Halloween a couple of nights early at PPG Paints Arena.

The sellout crowd of 18,560 Tuesday included fans dressed up as Buzz Lightyear, devils and avocados, to say nothing of various ghouls, superheroes and movie characters.

But the best costumes of all belonged to the Flyers.

Not just because they came in holiday-appropriate colors, black and orange, but because their outfits were so darned convincing. From their helmets to their skates, their sweaters to their shin pads, the Flyers looked like a genuine NHL team.

At least until the game started.

Which, as it turned out, was not all that long before it effectively ended.

The Penguins, who had manufactured just four first-period goals in their first dozen games, threw four pucks past Brian Elliott -- who had shown up with a full set of authentic-looking goalie gear -- in the first 14:02 of play, at which point the only mystery was how large the Penguins' margin of victory would be.

The final count turned out to be 7-1, and it wasn't as close as that score might suggest.

"There's no doubt we're a much better team than we showed tonight," Philadelphia coach Alain Vigneault said.

Sounds fair enough, if only because Philadelphia couldn't be much worse than it looked for most of the evening.

The Penguins, conversely, turned in the latest in a series of strong two-way performances. With rare exceptions, they were disciplined, detailed and diligent for 60 minutes, and were rewarded with their second consecutive victory. And they did it with contributions from up and down the lineup. Seven players scored goals and 12 had at least one point, while Matt Murray stopped 29 of 30 shots.

Sure, some chipped in a bit more than others -- Sidney Crosby, Dominik Simon and Dominik Kahun each had three points, for example -- but the recurring theme of a solid team effort held up yet again, as they raised their record to 8-5.

"I like the way our team's playing," Mike Sullivan said. "I've liked the way our team's playing for three or four weeks now. We have four lines participating. We're playing the game the right way, the way we want to play it. When we all buy in, the way the guys are buying in right now, I think we're a very good hockey team."

His top line, which has Crosby between Jake Guentzel and Simon, is a big part of that. Each member of the line got a goal against Elliott, and they combined for 13 of the Penguins' 37 shots on goal.

"Their chemistry is great right now," Brian Dumoulin said. "They're clicking. They're the horse that drives us."

Tormenting the Flyers has been something of a tradition for Crosby since he broke into the league, and this game was no exception. In addition to his goal, he set up two others, making this the 14th time Crosby has put up three or more points against the Flyers. In the process, he pushed his career total against them to 102 in 68 games.

Not bad for a guy who had been concerned his play would be impeded by a shield he was wearing to protect the part of his face that was hit by a Kris Letang shot in Dallas Saturday.

"A few (times) around the net, when the puck is in your feet, it's tougher to pick up," Crosby said.

The Flyers are to be forgiven if they didn't notice.

Of all the things the Penguins did right on this night, one of the most impressive was the way they maintained their focus after building their 4-0 lead. There were no major letdowns, no lapses in concentration that so often come after a team has taken control of a game.

Rather than sitting on their lead during the second period -- and possibly allowing the Flyers to whittle it down a bit -- the Penguins stayed aggressive and worked to add to their advantage. Which they did, thanks to goals by Guentzel and Zach Aston-Reese.

"It can be dangerous when you get up a few goals early in a game, because there's a lot of hockey left," Sullivan said. "If you exhale, sometimes you can get on your heels and momentum can change fast."

By the time Oskar Lindblom spoiled Murray's bid for his second shutout in a row at 1:57 of the third period, the Flyers were far past the point where they could exhale enough to fog a mirror.

Lindblom's goal certainly wasn't enough to affect the outcome or, for that matter, to jolt the Penguins out of the responsible, cohesive style that has served them so well since the season was about a week old.

"The key thing is, we're playing as a group," Dumoulin said. "I thought at times in the past, we got a lot of individual effort. We were all working hard, but it wasn't cooperative, and it wasn't as a team."

Hearing that has to be awfully scary for a lot of other clubs around the league. Including ones who only look the part.

• Justin Schultz opened the scoring with his first of the season at 5:57 of the first period, and Jared McCann followed with the game-winner at 8:13.

• Dumoulin returned after a four-game absence and played 19 minutes, 57 seconds. He was credited with two hits and three blocked shots. Alex Galchenyuk played 11:08 in his first game back after sitting out nine. He had two shots on goal and was the only Penguins player to record a negative plus-minus rating.

• One blemish on the Penguins' generally strong performance: Their power play was 0-for-3, leaving it 0-for-14 over the past seven games.

• The Penguins had not scored four first-period goals since Dec. 17, 2011 against Buffalo.

• Crosby is the only active NHL player to put up 100 points against one opponent, and actually has done it against two. He has 113 against the New York Islanders.

• Kahun, who had two points in his first 11 games, has four in the past two, including the Penguins' final goal and assists on their first two against Philadelphia. "We felt like he was getting better with every game," Sullivan said. "The last few games when he didn't score and get a point, we thought he was making plays, so our advice to him was just to stay with it."

• Nick Bjugstad initially was awarded the second assist on Kahun's goal with 6.6 seconds to go in regulation, but it was taken away after the game.

• Flyers defenseman Matt Niskanen dropped Crosby with a hard, but clean, hit about 7 1/2 minutes into the second period.

• The Penguins were caught with too many men on the ice with 3.7 seconds left in the opening period. It was their fourth such infraction of the season.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore

• Video highlights

• NHL scoreboard

• NHL standings

THE INJURIES

• Evgeni Malkin (unspecified, lower-body) is on Long-Term Injured Reserve

THE LINEUPS

Sullivan’s lines and pairings:

Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Dominik Simon

Alex Galchenyuk -- Nick Bjugstad -- Patric Hornqvist

Dominik Kahun -- Jared McCann -- Bryan Rust