A cold opening
PITTSBURGH — After 43 years of trekking to the familiar old Civic Arena to play in Pittsburgh, the rival Philadelphia Flyers knew nothing about the Penguins' new arena.
Turns out it wasn't a competitive disadvantage at all. The Flyers didn't know the new building, but the Penguins knew nothing about the Flyers' new goalie.
Sergei Bobrovsky, not intimidated by being the youngest goalie to start a Flyers opener, upstaged the arena's debut with an excellent one of his own. He weathered a flurry of shots over the first two periods, then shook off two goals in the third with a 29-save performance as the Flyers beat Pittsburgh 3-2 Thursday.
The Consol Energy Center's debut went off brilliantly before a standing room crowd of 18,289, the largest to watch a hockey game in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately for the Penguins, Bobrovsky's debut was even better.
"It wasn't anything too extraordinary," Bobrovsky said. "I wasn't too nervous. I was ready for this."
Or as ready as any 22-year-old with no experience in North American hockey could be.
Bobrovsky was 9-22-3 — although with a sub-3.00 goals-against average — for Novokuznetsk of Russia's KHL last season. When the Penguins learned earlier in the day he would start, they located only three periods of game tape to scout.
"I never see this guy play, never met him," Penguins star Evgeni Malkin said. "It's a little bit harder when you don't know how he plays, nothing about him."
They probably don't know much more now.
With Flyers starter Michael Leighton hurt, coach Peter Laviolette chose Bobrovsky over the experienced Brian Boucher because he played well during the preseason. Bobrovsky made 32 saves against the Islanders and 26 against Minnesota.
Bobrovsky was helped when first-period shots by Sidney Crosby and Paul Martin hit posts. His strong play allowed the Flyers to open a 2-0 lead on Danny Briere's power-play goal 2:51 into the second period and Blair Betts' goal with 2:45 remaining in the period.
Given how Crosby's debut in 2005 rejuvenated interest in Pittsburgh hockey and made the new arena possible, it would have been fitting if he had scored the first goal.
"We hit some posts, took some shots he didn't see," Crosby said. "We did some good things. You want to win the first one, every guy in here wants to, everyone that came tonight wanted to see us win it. But that's the game."
Pittsburgh finally got on the board on Tyler Kennedy's score from along the goal line 44 seconds into the third period. Claude Giroux restored the Flyers' two-goal lead about four minutes later by stealing Kris Letang's pass and beating Marc-Andre Fleury on a short-handed breakaway.
After Alex Goligoski scored on the power play 19 seconds later for Pittsburgh, the Flyers held on by killing off a Penguins power play during the final 1:13.
The Penguins did no better in the first game in their new building than they did in their Civic Arena opener as an expansion franchise, a 2-1 loss to Montreal on Oct. 11, 1967. However, that arena already was 6 years old.
"We played with lots of emotion, lots of energy tonight, it's a good game," Malkin said. "Maybe we will play the next one better."
