Facing elimination at the supposedly hostile Mellon Arean, the Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 Thursday, forcing a Game 6 back in Philly.

Despite the Penguins’ attempts to match the Flyers’ Orange Crush with a White Out of their own, the Pittsburgh fans were flat and uninspired, much like the Penguins themselves.

The Penguins played a solid first period, outshooting the Flyers 15-5, but were unable to get one by Marty Biron, who had brought his A-game. After the first period, however, the Penguins seemed to just be hoping the puck would go in the net and that they would pull out the eliminating victory. After the first period, the Penguins had just 13 total shots on goal, all stopped by Biron.

“We played a strong game and I think we came out good in the first 5 and they were a little bit flat too in the first period,” Flyers’ winger Mike Knuble said.

The Flyers, on the other hand, played with a sense of urgency, understanding that this could be their final game of the season.

“It’s a fun thing,” Biron said. “There’s no more excitement and challenge to be down in a series and know that there’s no tomorrow, and playing in a building that’s tough to play in.”

Biron was stellar, stopping all 28 shots aimed his way. The performance was made even more impressive after it was made known that coach John Stevens had specifically called Biron out as needing to bring his A-game. This kind of pressure would crush most goalies; not Biron.

“Part of the message before the game was we needed Marty to be great,” Stevens said. “I thought we had a really good start to the game, and after the 5-minute mark we played a little bit too cautious and then when Marty plays like he did, he allowed us to regroup between periods, he allowed us to start doing some of the things we had done early in the series and got things corrected.

“I think Marty deserves a lot of the credit for that; he allowed us to regroup,” Stevens added.

As is the case in every NHL playoff game, and was never more evident then it was in Game 4, the goalies are the most important players on the ice. Despite outplaying the Penguins in every way on Tuesday in Philadelphia, the Flyers were unable to get a meaningful goal past a dynamite Marc-Andre Fleury.

Fleury was less then stellar Thursday night, while Biron was lights out. Biron is largely seen as the reason for the Flyers’ success in last year’s playoffs, helping the team make the Eastern Conference Finals just one year removed from their worst season in team history.

“They got a lot of shots on us, but Marty was able to see the puck and made great saves,” said Knuble. “And that [Aaron] Asham goal was a huge pick-me-up, there is no doubt about it. As players, you could feel the energy-jump on the bench.

“It’s great to see a guy like him, he doesn’t get a lot of press all the time, just to score a huge goal. Guys like him are important.”

Asham got the Flyers on the board six and a half minutes into the second

Philadelphia Inquirer

period with a laser shot from the top of the circle. The first goal of the game was universally agreed upon as being the most important goal of the game. The Penguins thought they had evened things up just a few minutes later on an Evgeni Malkin goal, but it was overturned after the replay showed that he kicked the puck into the net.

The Flyers never looked back, scoring two additional goals in the third period.

“We’re just having fun right now and I can’t wait to go back home and play in front of the fans,” said rookie Claude Giroux, who scored his second goal of the playoffs three minutes into the final period. “I think we’re more excited to win than nervous to lose, and we just played the same way we played before in the last game and had a couple of lucky bounces, then Malkin’s goal got canceled, and when you work hard you get rewarded.”

The Flyers hope to bring the Orange Crush to the Penguins on Saturday, forcing a Game 7 back in Pittsburgh, where anything is possible.