Philadelphia Flyers’ Sean Couturier scores dazzling goal

Blame a porous defense and the team’s failure to win on home ice. He got tangled up with Flyers centre Jori Lehtera and went down awkwardly. They have an opportunity to eliminate the Flyers today in Game 6 at the Wells Fargo Arena.

Meanwhile, the Penguins don’t want to wait until Game 7 to close this first round series out. Phil Kessel was able to get him the puck and he let go a quick one-timer that beat Neuvirth to give the Penguins the lead.

There are also questions about Ivan Provorov. They have played the Capitals in the second round in each of the past two seasons.

Guentzel scored six goals in the series and added another hat trick to pair with the one he had as a rookie in a first-round series last season against the Blue Jackets.

They’re 2-1 in second chances to end an opponent’s season, excluding Game 7s.

If that wasn’t enough, Guentzel scored his fourth goal of the game on a two-on-one just 10 seconds later, officially icing the game.

“It was something special”, Penguins goalie Matt Murray said of Guentzel’s game.

Guentzel didn’t just join Mario Lemieux and Kevin Stevens as the only Penguins with four or more goals in a playoff game.

When the Flyers are bad, they are bad.

This series it was Flyers forward Sean Couturier who played through a major injury to help his team. That’s the longest stretch in franchise history. Angry Flyers fans chanted “Fire Hakstol!”

Pittsburgh Penguins center Evgeni Malkin (71) skates with the puck during the second period. And again with under a minute left in the second, when a pair of disgusting Radko Gudas turnovers in Pittsburgh’s offensive zone led to a Guentzel score and a 4-4 tie. Michal Neuvirth steadied the Flyers net and provided big saves.

Jake Guentzel had the same reaction as the rest of us after putting his four-goal finishing touch on the Flyers.

Couturier also led a penalty-killing unit that was 5 for 5 – against the league’s top power play – and scored a shorthanded goal. Through 87 regular season outings, 48 of its games have gone over the total, while 34 have gone under and just five have pushed.

Wayne Simmonds created a turnover that led to Couturier’s goal. He opened the scoring with an unassisted tally on an ugly sequence just over two minutes into the game.

Over Pittsburgh’s last ten games, eight of them have been decided by two or more goals (the team is 5-3 in those games).

“He did such a great job past year in the playoffs and he’s raised his game again to another level”, captain Sidney Crosby said. Filppula failed to pick up Crosby, who was all alone.

Just 47 seconds later, the Flyers had another defensive breakdown, leaving Carl Hagelin alone in front. “You start overthinking it, trying to do much”, Giroux said.

The Flyers tied it on Andrew MacDonald’s one-time laser from the right point with 4:12 to go in the second.