Flyers spoil Penguins big night with 3-2 opening game win

The Pittsburgh Penguins big night was spoiled by their cross-state rivals as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Penguins 3-2 in the opening game at the Consol Energy Center.

After a scoreless first period, Philadelphia scored twice in the second period giving rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky a two goal lead heading into the third period.

Bobrovsky who was the third rookie goaltender in Flyers history to start a regular season opener, was strong early on and made 29 saves in the win.

Pittsburgh came out of the gates quick with several prime scoring chances but couldn’t get one past Bobrovsky until 44 seconds into the third period when Tyler Kennedy scored to cut the Flyers lead to 2-1.

Kennedy who had an excellent game, blistered a snap shot from the left corner past Bobrovsky and gave the Penguins some life. However, minutes later Pittsburgh was back into a 2-goal hole as Claude Giroux scored a shorthanded goal at 4:55 of the third period to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead.

Defenseman Kris Letang made a lazy backhand pass into his zone on the play and Giroux intercepted the pass and came in all alone, beating Fleury with a nifty move.

Pittsburgh though responded within seconds, pressuring the Flyers in the offensive zone with their aggressive defensemen and Alex Goligoski redirected a Zbynek Michalek wrist shot past Bobrovsky to make it 3-2.

Pittsburgh was awarded a power play with 1:13 remaining in the game but were unable to capitalize and the Flyers hung on and took the regular season opener. Pittsburgh was 1-for-5 on the power play and their No. 1 unit struggled for the most part.

Pittsburgh outshot Philadelphia 31-27 in the game. Goaltender Marc Andre Fleury made 24 saves in the loss.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were each held scoreless.

The Penguins host the Montreal Canadiens Saturday night in a rematch of 2010 playoffs.

Goal: 02:51 PHI PPG – Danny Briere (1) Tip-In

Assists: M. Richards (1) & V. Leino (1)

Goal: 17:15 PHI Blair Betts (1) Wrist Shot

Assists: D. Powe (1) & J. Van Riemsdyk (1)

Goal: 00:44 PIT Tyler Kennedy (1) Snap Shot

Assists: P. Martin (1) & K. Letang (1)

Goal: 04:55 PHI SHG – Claude Giroux (1) Wrist Shot

Goal: 05:14 PIT PPG – Alex Goligoski (1) Tip-In

Assists: Z. Michalek (1) & C. Kunitz (1)