PHILADELPHIA -- This is not part of some grand strategy.

It is not every particularly desirable.

	Rusty Kennedy, Associated Press Tony Amonte earned two minutes for goaltender interference by colliding with Jean-Sebastien Aubin as the Penguins goalie was trying to corral a loose puck in the second period. Click photo for larger image.

But it is a trend. One that's become pretty tough to overlook.

The Penguins have gotten into the habit of following up some of their most miserable performances with some of their best, and did it again with a 2-1 victory against the Flyers at Wachovia Center last night.

They were coming off an 8-0 loss to Montreal -- one of their most dismal showings of the season -- two days earlier, and responded with a sensational effort against a team many regard as a legitimate contender for the Stanley Cup.

"We took that loss the other night to heart," Penguins right winger Tom Kostopoulos said. "We know we're better than that, and we know we let everybody down, from the fans to everyone in the organization.

"I think everyone wanted to come out and play a really good game, just to show that no one's giving up, that we're going to try our hardest, game in and game out."

Mind you, no one on this side of the state has been working on parade routes lately -- well, not for anyone except the Eagles -- but the Flyers, their recent struggles aside, remain a team capable of humbling almost any opponent.

"Nobody wants to be embarrassed," Penguins center Mike Eastwood said. "And if you're playing a good team like the Flyers, it can happen again."

The Penguins (11-25-5-3) know that better than most -- they were 1-20-1 in their previous 22 visits to Philadelphia -- but competed with the Flyers from the opening shift.

And while every Penguins victory is something of a novelty -- hey, they only have 11 in 44 games -- this was even more noteworthy than most, because it was produced, in large part, by excellent special-teams work.

And the goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Aubin should not be overlooked -- he stopped 33 of 34 shots, and made another pretty compelling case for keeping three goalies on the major-league roster -- but this victory would not have been possible if the Penguins hadn't scored on two of five power plays and killed all four Philadelphia power plays.

"Obviously, we haven't been very good at [special-teams play] throughout the season," Eastwood said. "It certainly hasn't won us too many games, and probably has hurt us in a lot of games. So it was nice to have it help us."

The pivotal point came late in the second period, when the Penguins were holding a 2-0 lead and Philadelphia was awarded a five-on-three power play for 146 seconds.

During that span, however, the Flyers launched only two shots at Aubin. That reflected, in part, their propensity for overpassing the puck -- "They're kind of on the perimeter, looking for the perfect pass," Eastwood said -- but also reflected some quality work by the penalty-killing units of Brian Holzinger with Josef Melichar and Marc Bergevin and Eastwood with Martin Strbak and Dick Tarnstrom.

Aubin called that penalty-killing sequence "awesome," and he might have been understating it.

"That was probably the turning point of the game," Kostopoulos said. "It gave us so much momentum, and took a lot away from them."

Truth be told, the Penguins had seized the momentum relatively early in the game, as Tarnstrom gave them a 1-0 lead at 16:12 of the opening period when he beat Flyers goalie Robert Esche with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

That score stood until 12:32 of the second, when Kostopoulos flipped a Rico Fata rebound past Esche from between the left circle and the crease for what proved to be the game-winner.

The game hardly was over at that point, however. The Penguins still had to survive the Flyers' extended five-on-three power play. They had to have Aubin deny Sami Kapanen during a three-on-two break midway through the third period.

They had to have Mike Comrie -- who deflected a Chris Therien shot past Aubin at 4:35 of the third for the Flyers' only goal -- fail to tuck a shot inside the right post with just over eight minutes left in regulation.

"We were lucky that they didn't take advantage of some of the chances they got," Olczyk said.

And they were even more fortunate that Aubin had at least one big-time save left in him when, with 1:37 to go, Mark Recchi had a chance from directly in front of the net.

"I knew he was there," Aubin said. "I knew the pass was going there. I tried to block as much of the angle as I could. It worked out pretty well."

Perfectly, in fact. And the Penguins deserve credit for doing a reasonable job of keeping their composure after Comrie scored, although they were more than a little worried when it became a one-goal game.

"I'm not going to lie," Kostopoulos said. "There was definitely panic. We tried to stay calm as much as we can, but you're leading one of the best teams by one goal in the third and they're pressing, it's tough not to panic."

The Penguins had plenty of reason to do that after Saturday's game, too, but did not. That's a start, but the next step will be to prove that they regularly can play a strong game without having it be preceded by an awful one.

"That's part of what we're trying to learn here," Eastwood said. "To be consistent. How we have to play every night if we're going to be competitive.

"When we don't show up, it gets ugly. And when we do, we're in every game."