Philadelphia 8 – Pittsburgh 4: Pens prove they are a disaster as Flyers take 3-0 series lead

The Philadelphia Flyers fans chanted “you can’t beat us” on Sunday afternoon and the only area Pittsburgh could beat Philadelphia was when the Penguins would drop the gloves, as the Penguins suffered an embarrassing 8-4 loss in Game 3 of the Quarterfinals.

Max Talbot, Matt Read and Daniel Briere each scored twice for the Flyers who put on another show offensively, putting up 8 goals and chasing Marc Andre Fleury from the net after two periods.

Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds also scored for Philadelphia. Jaromir Jagr had 3 assists and Brayden Schenn added 2 assists in the win.

The Flyers were excellent on special teams once again, Max Talbot scored shorthanded and the Flyers went 4-7 on the power play.

Pittsburgh scored first in the game for the third straight time when Jordan Staal opened the scoring 3:52 into the game, but the Flyers opened up a three goal lead in the first period and led 4-2 after one period.

Pittsburgh would cut Philadelphia’s lead to 4-3 and later to 5-4 in the second period but the Penguins continued to implode in crunch situations and went to the second intermission down 6-4. Philadelphia would close out the game with an 8-4 win.

Jordan Staal and James Neal each scored twice for the Penguins.

The Penguins proved Sunday afternoon that they are a disaster, falling down 0-3 in the series.

Pittsburgh’s defensive woes not only hit a new low but the Penguins played from a discpline standpoint that they deserved to be playing in the ECHL.

The teams combined for 148 penalty minutes and the Penguins looked like a team that’s never been there before.

What was stunning is just minutes into the game, Pittsburgh began to already lose their focus in a first period that saw two teams combine for 72 penalty minutes and saw Penguin defenseman Kris Letang and Arron Asham ejected from the game, Sidney Crosby and Claude Grioux dropping the gloves, in addition to several other scrums that would continue throughout the game.

Asham was ejected after cross-checking Brayden Schenn in the throat and punching a defenseless Schenn in the head while he was down on the ice. Asham will likely be suspended at least a game.

Sidney Crosby though didn’t feel the Penguins lost their cool. “No, i don’t think we did, ” Crosby said. “I think there were many times in the second we battled back. If anything, think guys are just trying to slow things down a bit and show fight in their game.”

As undiscipline and bad defensively the Penguins were, they had several chances to get back into the game, most notably in the second period. After Jordan Staal scored at 15:40 to cut the Flyers lead to 5-4, momentum began to swing in Pittsburgh’s direction but Chris Kunitz took a retaliation penalty, slashing Braydon Coburn after being dumped in front by Coburn.

Philadelphia would capitalize on the power play when Wayne Simmonds took a stretch pass blowing past Paul Martin and Brooks Orpik off a poor dump in from Craig Adams at the Flyers blueline to give the Flyers a 6-4 lead going into the second intermission. It was Game Over as the Flyers would buckle down defensively and score 27 seconds into the third period to put the Penguins away just seconds into the third.

Marc Andre Fleury was pulled after the second period, showing awful rebound control as his struggles continued this afternoon.

Fleury made 22 saves on 28 shots in the loss, falling to 0-3 in the playoffs with a 6.34 goals against average and .798 save percentage. He is 10-13 in his last 23 post-season games.