Philadelphia Flyers could have gone very sideways for the Pittsburgh Penguins in fact, it started to go sideways early on.
There was a definitive turning point that reversed their fortunes and led them to a 5-4 overtime victory.Â
Midway through the second period after the Flyers went up, 3-0, on goals by Noah Cates, Owen Tippett, and rookie sensation. Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan made the decision to pull starting goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic in favor of rookie Joel Blomqvist.
The first two goals were not really on him although the Penguins surrendered the first goal on the first shot for the 12th time this season but he was stuck too far out of his net.
Philip Tomasino scored a nasty net-front goal to cut the Flyers’ lead to 3-1 after the change. Erik Karlsson scored just 30 seconds later to cut the deficit to one.
Then, Boko Imama laid a thunderous hit a blatant interference on Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway, who was down for some time and did not return to the game. The Penguins failed to kill the ensuing penalty they surrendered a second goal to Michkov but it did not seem to faze them.
With less than two minutes to go in the second, Karlsson scored a second goal a rocket of a wrist shot from the right circle to put the Penguins back down by one.
The teams traded chances for much of the third period, and it forced overtime. And just over one minute into overtime, Malkin finished a gorgeous, patient play at the net-front to make Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale overcommit, and he buried the puck behind Sam Ersson.