Philadelphia 3 – Pittsburgh 2 OT: Hartnell buries Pens with OT winner

The Philadelphia Flyers (42-22-8, 92 pts) rallied from a two-goal third period deficit and Scott Hartnell scored with 0.9 seconds remaining in overtime, leading the Flyers to a thrilling 3-2 OT win over the Pittsburgh Penguins (44-21-6, 94 pts) on Sunday afternoon at the Wells Fargo Center.

Hartnell who scored twice in the win for his 34th and 35th goals of the season, sunk the Penguins, joining a final second rush late off a line change for Jaromir Jagr, and the Penguins lost Hartnell in coverage and Daniel Briere carrying the puck in the zone, pulled up on the left side and found a late trailing Harnell who fired a shot past Marc Andre Fleury for win.

The win was a huge one for the Flyers who now trail the New York Rangers by just two points.

The Penguins winning streak ends at 11 but they gained a valuable point, moving one point behind the Rangers and holding a two point lead over the Flyers for 4th place in the conference. The Penguins finished a tough three game road stretch going 2-0-1, collecting 5 of 6 points.

However, it’s a game the Penguins had complete control of through the first two periods where they dominated play, out shooting the Flyers 27-10 and holding a 2-0 lead.

Craig Adams (5) scored at 13:21 of the first period, screening Ilya Bryzgalov on a Kris Letang shot giving Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead.

Evgeni Malkin (41) then pushed Pittsburgh’s lead to 2-0, scoring with 53 seconds left in the second period to give Pittsburgh a commanding 2-0 lead. 23 seconds later though, Zbynek Michalek took a slashing penalty at 19:30 of the period, setting the Flyers up for a power play going into the third period and Kimmo Timonen (3) scored 31 seconds into the third as the Flyers climbed back into the game with the power play marker.

From there, momentum tilted into Philadelphia’s favor and the Penguins never gained it back as the Flyers turned the tables on Pittsburgh and dominated play in the third period and into overtime.

Hartnell who was a pest all game, tied the game at 2-2, 4:47 into the third.

The Penguins lost their cool at times in the third period and Evgeni Malkin was among those, taking a bad elbowing penalty in the period.

For Philadelphia, goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was tremendous, making 38 saves and helped keep Philadelphia in the game when they were badly outplayed early on.

The Flyers are 3-1 against Pittsburgh this season. Pittsburgh lost for the first time since February 19th.

NOTES: Sidney Crosby was pointless in the loss. He had 17:37 of ice time and was a minus-1…….. Kris Letang was tremendous in the loss at both ends of the ice. He had 2 assists and 6 shots on goal. Letang amassed 24:12 of ice time and delivered a hard hit on Jaromir Jagr in the second period……Jordan Staal’s 10 game assist streak came to an end. He was pointless and struggled in the faceoff circle, winning 8 of 21 draws……Arron Asham returned to the lineup and had 6:12 of ice time….