NHL playoffs
Sidney Crosby had a goal and three assists and Matt Murray stopped 26 shots to help the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Flyers 5-1 on Sunday to take a 2-1 lead in their NHL Eastern Conference firstround series.
PHILADELPHIA — The kitschy light-up bracelets flickered in the darkened arena and another packed house roared “Crosby sucks! Crosby sucks!”
Here’s the thing Philadelphia fans haven’t yet accepted about Sidney Crosby over the last 13 years — he really doesn’t, and especially not against the Flyers.
Crosby matched a postseason-best with four points on a goal and three assists to help the Pittsburgh Penguins silence the raucous crowd and beat Philadelphia 5-1 on Sunday for a 2-1 lead in the firstround series.
“When we needed to, we made some good plays, we got some big saves and that’s what you need this time of year,” Crosby said.
It’s the path Pittsburgh took the last two seasons all the way to parade routes in June.
Crosby, who has 93 points in 63 career regular-season games against Philly, shut up the orange-and-black diehards with a wraparound goal off a turnover midway through the first.
Crosby had a hat trick in Game 1 and the threetime Stanley Cup champion showed no sign of easing up against his nemesis.
The Flyers haven’t won a playoff series since 2012 and pulled out all the theatrical stops in their return to the postseason after a one-year absence.
Flyers fans even stuck photos of the hated Crosby inside the urinals throughout the arena that had to guarantee they were more on target with their shots than anyone on the home team’s roster.
“It’s not the first building that’s happened in,” Crosby said, smiling. “I don’t know if they stole that idea from someone else.”
Two of the so-called fiercest rivals in the NHL have provided three lopsided games: Pittsburgh’s 7-0 win in Game 1 and Philadelphia’s 5-1 victory in Game 2 could about qualify as nail-biters in this series.
Game 4 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.
Crosby scored his fourth goal of the series in the first period, and Derick Brassard, Evgeni Malkin and Brian Dumoulin scored in the second to make it 4-0. Malkin and Dumoulin scored 5 seconds apart.
“After the third goal, I should’ve taken a timeout,” Flyers Coach Dave Hakstol said. “That would’ve been one thing to stop that momentum.”
Justin Schultz made it 5-1 in the third on Pittsburgh’s third power-play goal of the game.
Matt Murray stopped 26 shots to make it stick.
Brian Elliott, yanked in Game 1, had another rough outing and might need to borrow fellow Wells Fargo Center tenant Joel Embiid’s black mask to have a better look at the puck.
Elliott, who had 21 saves, was stunned at how easily the Penguins scored twice in 5 seconds.
“Guy walking down main street,” he said.