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04/27 22:30 CDT The Penguins needed Sidney Crosby to do Sidney Crosby things
against Philly. The captain delivered
The Penguins needed Sidney Crosby to do Sidney Crosby things against Philly.
The captain delivered
By WILL GRAVES
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH (AP) --- The sequence might as well have served as a metaphor of the
Pittsburgh Penguins' season.
There was Sidney Crosby, his left knee throbbing after absorbing a blistering
shot from the point by teammate Ryan Shea, limping off the ice and disappearing
down the tunnel in the second period of Game 5 on Monday night against
Philadelphia.
A few minutes later, with the Penguins' longtime captain still out of sight,
the Flyers tied it. Suddenly, a contest Pittsburgh had controlled for
significant stretches was gone. The young Flyers, many of them experiencing the
cauldron of playoff hockey for the first time, were surging. A quick playoff
exit for a team that spent six months defying expectations loomed.
And just like that, Crosby's familiar No. 87 returned to the bench. And just
like that, he was over the boards and on the ice. And just like that, he was
finishing off a shift by flipping the puck to Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang
at the top of the Flyers' zone.
Crosby's back was to the play when Letang's somewhat innocent shot from the
point sailed wide of the Philadelphia net. Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar kept
his eyes forward, expecting a big rebound. It never came.
The puck instead glanced off the back of Vladar's left leg, then his right and
trickled across the goal line to provide the goal that turned out to be the
game-winner as Pittsburgh fended off elimination and forced maybe more than a
little doubt into the mind of the Flyers, whose once-comfortable 3-0 lead in
the best-of-seven series no longer feels quite so comfortable after
Pittsburgh's 3-2 victory.
Game 6 is in Philadelphia on Wednesday, and the Penguins will head across the
state not only with momentum, but also with their unquestioned leader starting
to look like his old self after an uncommonly quiet start.
Save for his brief retreat to the trainer's room, Crosby was everywhere. He
assisted on Connor Dewar's goal in the second period, got another primary
assist on Letang's second goal in as many games and nearly added a goal himself
when his diving flick toward the Flyers' open net in the final minutes clanged
off the left post.
So much for looking every bit of 38. Monday night was vintage Crosby.
"When things get hard and your back is against the wall, there is no doubt in
my mind that he's going to lead the charge in terms of elevating and finding a
way to do everything possible to help us win this game," first-year Penguins
coach Dan Muse said.
Crosby has 21 points in 24 games in his career when facing elimination. His
100th career playoff victory looked an awful lot like the 99 that came before
it, with Crosby doing a little bit of everything, including taking a wallop off
his left knee, then returning a few minutes later as if nothing happened.
"I feel good," he said. "I mean, that's stuff that happens sometimes and you
try to go to the front of the net and it's just one of those ones that found
its way. Sometimes they hit you, sometimes they go by."
Crosby absorbed a direct hit, albeit from friendly fire, and bounced back
immediately. It's been that way all season for the Penguins, whose surprising
season has been marked by righting themselves just when it looked like things
were about to get sideways.
What they're trying to pull off now would trump everything that came before it
by a wide margin. The odds remain slim --- only four teams have ever rallied
after losing the first three games of a series --- but they're not as slim as
they were when the puck dropped for Game 4.
Crosby will take it. So will his team.
"I think the last couple games we found our stride a bit," he said. "We should
feel good about that ... we're playing good hockey and we've got to go in there
and find a way to win again."
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and
https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
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