A model of efficiency
PITTSBURGH — One game, and the Philadelphia Flyers already have a better season series record against the Pittsburgh Penguins than they did last season.
Joffrey Lupul and Jeff Carter scored on two of Philadelphia's first three shots and the Flyers beat the Penguins 3-1 on Wednesday night, their first victory in two seasons against their division rival.
The Flyers went 0-8 against the Penguins last season, the first time in club history they have lost that many games in a season to a single opponent. They hadn't won in Pittsburgh in five games since Jan. 21, 2006, or against the Penguins in any venue since April 11, 2006.
"With so many new faces, we didn't think it would be the same," defenseman Jason Smith said. "There weren't a lot of guys who were here last year, but we wanted to put that behind us. It's a new season and a fresh start."
Mike Richards also scored for the Flyers, who had dropped four of six and were coming off a 2-0 loss to the Rangers on Monday night. The Flyers averaged two goals in their previous six games, only to get that many in slightly more than 5Z\x minutes against Dany Sabourin, who didn't look comfortable on either shot.
Penguins coach Michel Therrien stayed with Sabourin after he shut out the Devils 5-0 on Monday night, even though Marc-Andre Fleury was 8-0 against the Flyers last season and 10-3 with a 2.74 goals-against average in 14 career appearances.
So much for going with the hot goalie.
The Flyers needed 28 seconds to take the lead as Daniel Briere, shifted from the top line to the third line during practice Tuesday, found Lupul open in the slot for a hard wrist shot. Lasse Kukkonen was in front of the net and may have screened Sabourin on Lupul's fifth goal.
"We got off to a good start, that's something we talked about," Briere said. "We haven't gotten off to good starts."
Briere and Lupul weren't with Philadelphia last season, but were aware of the streak.
"It's a rivalry where you want to make a statement early in these games," Lupul said. "We've got them seven more times and we've got to build on it."
Sabourin also was slow to react on Carter's seventh goal, after the Flyers took the puck from Sergei Gonchar with some strong forechecking by Scottie Upshall and Scott Hartnell. Upshall fed in front to Carter, and he beat Sabourin easily high to the glove side with about 5Z\x minutes gone.
"The message before the game was we have to make our team aware of Pittsburgh, but we have to play our game," coach John Stevens said. "We have to believe in ourselves and show everybody we're a hockey team."
The Penguins, who scored five goals or more five times against the Flyers last season, got back into the game when Ryan Malone scored in the final minute of the period. Evgeni Malkin collided with Kimmo Timonen while carrying the puck into the neutral zone and lost control, but Sidney Crosby scooped it up on the fly and found Malone open at the edge of the net.
A season ago, Crosby had seven goals and nine assists against the Flyers. This night, all three Flyers goals came against Pittsburgh's top line of Crosby, Malkin and Ryan Malone.
"We hit a couple of posts, we had our opportunities but it's hard to fall behind like that and get back into it," Crosby said.
