Len Redkoles/Getty Images Jordan Staal, left, and Evgeni Malkin celebrate Staal's go-ahead goal in the third period yesterday in Philadelphia. Click photo for larger image. Related articles Penguins Notebook: Three Penguins make roster for YoungStars game Dave Molinari on the Penguins: A weekly look at the team, the issues, the questions

PHILADELPHIA -- Mark Recchi has seen this rivalry from both sides. For a lot of years.

He has friends in both locker rooms. In both front offices. In both owner's boxes.

That gives him a unique perspective on the way the Penguins have dominated Philadelphia this season. Not that he finds it any easier to believe than most other people who know how the Flyers have traditionally treated the Penguins like a speed bag.

"It's really strange," Recchi said after the Penguins' 5-3 victory at the Wachovia Center yesterday. "Obviously, they're going through some tough times right now."

The Flyers' league-worst record of 11-30-4 makes that pretty clear. The amazing part, for anyone who has followed the Penguins-Flyers rivalry, is how much the Penguins have contributed to Philadelphia's misery.

This is the first time since these two teams entered the NHL in 1967 that the Penguins have beaten the Flyers six times in a season. And it seemed as if it had been almost that long since they defeated Philadelphia without getting a spectacular contribution from Sidney Crosby.

Yesterday, Crosby managed just one assist, although that was enough to stretch his scoring streak against the Flyers to eight games and raise his 14-game point total against them to 30 points (14 goals, 16 assists). Philadelphia held him without a goal for the first time in seven games.

Most of the Penguins' offense came from the Jordan Staal-Evgeni Malkin-Michel Ouellet line, whose members accounted for three of their goals. Staal had the winner and an assist, Ouellet three assists and Malkin two goals and an assist.

"We know that line will click, Sid with [Ryan] Malone and Recchi," coach Michel Therrien said. "I have no doubt about that. But that's the purpose of trying to balance your lines."

Staal broke a 3-3 tie at 7:34 of the third period, when he stretched to steer a cross-ice feed from Malkin behind Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki.

"It was a picture-perfect pass," Staal said. "I just tapped it in."

His goal put the Penguins (19-17-7) in front to stay, ended a three-game losing streak and assured that what could have been a disastrous road trip ended up as merely a disappointing one.

"We haven't been playing our best, obviously," Staal said. "It's a huge win for us. Every two points matters so much."

That the Penguins were the better team never was seriously in question, as evidenced by their 39-18 advantage in shots. That they would get a victory to reinforce that point wasn't certain for much of the afternoon.

"We carried the play," Crosby said. "It was just a matter of making the mistakes we made, and that they ended up in our net."

One of those came 97 seconds into the game, when Ryan Potulny of Philadelphia scored on an uncontested shot from the front lip of the crease. But Sergei Gonchar pulled the Penguins even at 7:26, and Malkin put them in front at 14:48.

And when Recchi beat Niittymaki from below the right dot during a power play at 15:16 of the second, the Penguins appeared to have some breathing room. Which they did. For a couple of minutes.

Until Simon Gagne tipped in a pass from Peter Forsberg at 17:04 and Forsberg -- whose playmaking and shooting were almost as dangerous as his elbows and/or shoulders -- scored on a deflection at 18:28 to make it 3-3.

"We had some momentum," Staal said. "It just kind of switched sides."

Therrien disputed a suggestion that the Penguins let down after taking a 3-1 lead, but that sentiment was not universal in the locker room.

"We lost our composure for probably about three minutes," Recchi said. "But I'm proud of the way we played in the third."

Certainly, there was much for the Penguins to like about those 20 minutes. And, when Malkin scored into an empty net with 31.3 seconds left in regulation, they had secured a victory that boosted them, at least temporarily, into a tie for 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

All while adding a few more paragraphs to the story of the most rancid winter in Flyers history.

"It's tough to see," Recchi said. "But, on the other hand, it's great for us."