Crosby’s highlight goal not enough to dim Hart’s focus

Aesthetically speaking, Sidney Crosby’s 46th goal against the Flyers was a little more annoying than the others.

Crosby started the rush up ice for the Penguins Thursday at PPG Paints Arena without a stick, having handed his to a teammate.

In full stride, Crosby grabbed a replacement from the equipment manager at the bench, burst in on Carter Hart and wristed the rebound between the Flyers goalie’s legs. Priceless.

But it would really be the last major highlight for the Penguins.

Jake Voracek tied the game in the third period and after a scoreless overtime, Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux registered shootout successes for a 2-1 Flyers victory. Hart stopped 31 shots on the evening, including a pair of rockets in overtime.

“It was a real solid goaltending performance,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “No doubt this was a solid goaltending i think it was a great goaltending performance from both sides.”

Said Carter, “That was a huge two points for us. Got to do it again on Saturday.”

Pretty low-key considering Hart’s off-key performances so often of late. Either way, this was the Flyers first shootout win over Crosby and the Penguins.

Crosby has scored more goals against the Flyers than any NHL team.

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Flyers center Nolan Patrick exited the game after being hit in the head by a shot from Phil Myers with the score knotted at 1 in the third period.

With 16:46 left, Patrick was skating toward the boards in the Penguins end when Myers wristed a shot toward goal. Replays showed the puck hit Patrick behind his right ear. After some tense moments, the wobbly Patrick was helped off the ice.

“He was in the players’ change room getting changed and I talked to him briefly,” Vigneault said. “He said everything was fine.”

Patrick, 22, has four goals and four assists in 41 games with the Flyers this season.

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In a Penguins jersey after the trade from the Los Angeles Kings, Jeff Carter skated like the cat who netted 181 goals and 343 points in 461 games over six seasons for the Flyers, the last in 2010-11.

Four of those seasons were with Claude Giroux, who shared a hello with the teammate who went on to earn Stanley Cup championship rings with the Kings, who dealt him earlier this week to the Pens for conditional third and fourth-round picks.

Giroux, 33, described the reunion with the 36-yearold Carter as “definitely … odd.”

In 2009-10 Giroux and Carter reached the Stanley Cup finals with the Flyers, only to lose to the Chicago Blackhawks.

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Winger Wade Allison (62, 204) was activated from the Taxi Squad for his NHL debut.

Wearing No. 57, the 23-year-old Allison brought considerable energy to the ice, getting four shots on goal in 12 minutes covering 15 shifts. The 2016 secondround pick had four goals and nine points in eight games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

“He was strong with the puck, goes to the net,” Vigneault said. “And he’s going to get an opportunity to show what he can do at this level.”

Allison said it didn’t take long to get rid of the pregame jitters.

“As soon as you go out there and get your first shift it’s the same game of hockey,” he said.

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Myers replaced Sam Morin on defense. Vigneault described the move as a matchup and load management thing, saying Morin has “played a lot of hockey” and with the Penguins built on speed, would be better suited to playing against the more physical Capitals and the Islanders this weekend.