Pens Score Five Unanswered, Take Series

The Flyers were up 3-0. They were in total control. Game Seven tickets had already doubled in price.

Then Daniel Carcillo decided to fight Maxime Talbot.

Bad move. The positives resulting from dropping the mitts and trying to get the home crowd going, when you're already up 3-0, are vastly outweighed by the chance that your opponent picks up its game.

The Penguins did just that.

Just 14 seconds after the fight, Ruslan Fedotenko was able to nudge home a rebound after a great individual effort by Evgeni Malkin. Less than two minutes later, Mark Eaton was able to tap in an air-born rebound on a three on one rush.

With three minutes left in the second, Sidney Crosby displayed some excellent hand-eye coordination. Following Eaton's lead, Crosby was able to bat in another Martin Biron air-born rebound to make it 3-3 after two...

Coming out of the intermission, the Penguins continued to take it to the Flyers. Malkin, out on a shift with Crosby, was able to gain the blue-line, back off the defenders, and hit Sergei Gonchar with a drop pass. Gonchar ripped a howitzer cleanly by Biron's lower blocker side and into the twine.

Crosby was able to seal the game, and the series, with an empty-netter coming after a half-hearted neutral zone pass by Jeff Carter.

That play just about summed up Jeff Carter's series. I said beforehand I thought Carter and Richards would be able to match-up with Crosby and Malkin. They weren't able to in today's game, and certainly weren't able to in the series. While Carter and Richards combined for six points (Carter had just one), Crosby and Malkin combined for 8 goals and 9 assists, totaling 17 points.

Simply put, Crosby (2 goals) and Malkin (2 assists) were the best players on the ice today. When Talbot decided to take a beating to get the team going, they responded.

One very underrated part of Crosby's game has been his maturation defensively and in the face-off circle. Sid the Kid took 33 of the Pens' 55 draws, winning 20 and losing 13. He also made some excellent plays in the defensive zone, breaking up passes and supporting the puck down low.

When Crosby and Malkin elevate their game to the next level, your top guns better do the same.

Carter and Richards did not.