PHILADELPHIA — The uncharacteristically meek crowd at Wells Fargo Center saved most of their boos Thursday for Sidney Crosby, their favorite player to hate.
But it was Pittsburgh’s other top players who pushed the Penguins to a 6-2 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers. Bryan Rust buried two more goals. Kris Letang dished out three assists. Jake Guentzel tacked another onto his long point streak. And a strong showing from Tristan Jarry helped an early lead hold up.
The Penguins, the league’s hottest team, have now won 10 games in a row.
Thursday’s win had significantly less drama than the one the previous night.
On Wednesday, the Penguins rallied from two goals down to beat the St. Louis Blues and extend their winning streak. Crosby, his nose split, tied it up in the third period, then Evan Rodrigues buried the winner. It was an impressive, emotional win for the Penguins, who then had to hop onto a plane to Philadelphia.
If some Penguins felt a bit gassed Thursday night, it didn’t really show. Also in their favor was that the home team had several players, including captain Claude Giroux and workhorse defenseman Ivan Provorov, sidelined due to COVID-19.
The Penguins pounced on the undermanned Flyers in the first period, scoring at full strength, on the power play and at 4-on-4 to grab a commanding 3-0 lead.
Rust had the first two of those goals, giving him seven in his last three games.
After a 10-minute feeling-out period, Brian Boyle’s line drew a penalty with hard work down low and the Penguins got their first power play. They passed the puck around for about a minute before Letang got it to Rust at the back door.
Rust made it 2-0 less than three minutes later when he corralled an off-target pass with his left skate then quickly fired the puck into Carter Hart’s five-hole.
The Penguins would soon make it three goals in three minutes and 55 seconds. It took Guentzel three whacks to get the puck across the goal line after another slick feed from Letang, then a video review to conclude it was a good goal. Guentzel has now notched at least one point in the last 16 games he has played.
Cam Atkinson got the Flyers on the scoreboard midway through the second period when he bombed a one-timer past Jarry. Jarry, who was making his first start since Dec. 19 due to a bout with COVID-19, kept the score 3-1 as the Flyers pushed late in that period. His right pad save on Derick Brassard loomed large.
Rodrigues, another guy on a roll, and Guentzel scored on breakaways 40 seconds apart in the third period. At that point, checked-out Flyers fans could barely even register a murmur.
Crosby, who had two points in the win, and his linemates once again put their fingerprints all over the game. He led all players in offensive-zone puck possession, per Sportlogiq. Guentzel had a few more shots in the slot. And Rust nearly got another hat trick when he hit the crossbar late in the second period.
Rust looks like a different player than he did before the calendar turned to 2021. He twice missed a chunk of the season due to injury. And when he was in the lineup, goals were hard to come by. At times, it looked as if he was pressing.
But with his latest injury behind him, Rust has been on an absolute tear in 2022. He had a hat trick against San Jose then two goals in each of the wins over St. Louis and Philadelphia. His swagger is back, evidenced by a couple of nifty neutral-zone plays. And then inside the offensive zone he’s going right to the net.
Letang, meanwhile, didn’t have his sharpest game against St. Louis. But the veteran blue-liner was in complete control a night later, whirling and twirling with the puck on his blade before finding teammates who might not have known they were open. Letang has now recorded multi-point games in four of the last five.
Brian Boyle also scored before the Penguins had to hustle to another airport.
Thursday was the start of a season-long six-game road trip for the Penguins. Their next stop is Dallas, where they will visit the Stars on Saturday afternoon.
