SIDNEY CROSBY

BY ROCK HOFFMAN

Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby were the only scorers in the shootout as the Pittsburgh Penguins won 3-2 over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night at the Wachovia Center and swept a home-and-home series between the Keystone State rivals.

The Flyers, who have only three wins in the last 14 games, were grateful for the point they gained in the loss.

“This is a point,” said goalie Brian Boucher, who stopped 28-of-30 shots, “we were not getting earlier in this stretch of bad games.

Coming off of a 6-1 beating at the hands of the Penguins on Tuesday, the Flyers got off to a good start when Jeff Carter scored just over a minute into the game; it was his 12 tally of the year. Then Dan Carcillo went off for a high-stick penalty and Bill Guerin tied it less than three minutes later.

Early in the second period the Flyers went back into the lead. Evgeni Malkin was in the penalty box and Carcillo worked free from a scrum in the offensive right corner, his shot was stopped by Marc-Andre Fleury – who faced 33 shots and made 31 saves – but Claude Giroux put the rebound home for his seventh score of the year.

The Penguins tied it again on the power play, this one coming midway through the second period with Scott Hartnell off the ice, when Crosby got his 22^nd goal which is second-best in the NHL.

“We did a better job through the neutral zone,” said Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger when asked how the team contained Crosby and the rest of the high-scoring Penguins, “with our forwards attacking and pressuring the puck. [We] locked up the middle of the ice and didn’t allow them free reign through there. Five-on-five we did an excellent job but penalty trouble cost us a little bit.”

On Saturday, the Flyers host the New York Rangers.

Rock Hoffman can be reached at RDVSports@yahoo.com