The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in Game 5 at PPG Paints Arena on Thursday night, cutting a 3-0 series deficit to two wins. The Penguins are now two wins away from pulling off a comeback only four teams in NHL history have ever completed after falling behind 3-0.
Sidney Crosby set the tone with two assists, won 12 of 20 faceoffs and helped Pittsburgh protect a 3-2 lead throughout the final period. Arturs Silovs stopped 18 of 20 shots for the Flyers, but the Penguins never gave back the lead once they had it.
Crosby called the win huge and said the team feeds off the energy around it. Bryan Rust said the crowd was unbelievable, that it helped push the Penguins and may have hurt the Flyers a little, too. At the center of it all was a core that has outlasted almost everything else in the sport: Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have spent 20 seasons together, the longest-tenured trio of teammates in North American professional sports.
That mattered late. Letang stayed at his locker after the rest of the Penguins had left the room, a quiet sign of how much Game 5 meant to a team that entered the night facing elimination from the hole it had dug itself. The Flyers still hold the series edge, but Pittsburgh has turned what looked like a collapse into something far more dangerous.
If the Penguins finish the job, this game will stand as the night the series changed. If they do not, Game 5 will still be remembered as the point when Crosby, Malkin and Letang reminded the Flyers that no lead is comfortable against a group that has seen almost everything.
