Rare 3-on-5 goal stirs pot in Penguins' 6-4 victory
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Matt Cooke enjoyed a rare afternoon with two goals: "I've had a few games that have been good ... but this is pretty sweet." -
Brooks Orpik knocks Philadelphia's Andrej Meszaros off his skates Saturday. -
James Neal celebrates his 30th goal of the season, making it 6-3 Saturday in Philadelphia.
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PHILADELPHIA -- Matt Cooke has played 863 regular-season games in the NHL.
Some have been pretty good.
A lot have been forgettable.
A few have been regrettable.
But it is unlikely that any of the others yielded a performance quite the equal of the one he turned in Saturday afternoon in the Penguins' 6-4 victory against Philadelphia at Wells Fargo Center.
Cooke scored two goals -- one of them the Penguins' first three-on-five goal in more than 24 years -- and assisted on another to complement the four shots and two hits he contributed.
If it was not the finest game of his career, it surely was a medalist.
"I've had a few games that have been good," Cooke said. "I've had a couple of two-goal games -- this is the second one this year -- but this is pretty sweet. Especially to have it happen against Philly."
The victory was the Penguins' first in three games against Philadelphia this season, and it hoisted them into a tie with the Flyers for fourth in the Eastern Conference.
The Flyers, meanwhile, again failed to win consecutive games, something they have not managed since Jan. 10-12.
Cooke's three-on-five goal -- the Penguins' first since Mario Lemieux scored one in Los Angeles Feb. 13, 1998 -- was the most remarkable moment in a second period that might go down as the wildest 20 minutes of the Penguins season.
And maybe of a lot of their seasons.
Referees Stephane Auger and Paul Devorski handed out 12 minutes in penalties in the middle period, including 10 to the Penguins, but the only special-teams goals scored then were a couple the Penguins got while short-handed.
"That second period was something different," Penguins forward Dustin Jeffrey said. "All the penalties, power plays and short-handed goals, you really don't see that kind of stuff too often."
That there would be power plays should not have surprised anyone because, like most Penguins-Flyers games, this one had a fairly nasty edge.
It started with a punishing Deryk Engelland hit on Flyers center Claude Giroux early in the first period and included a nasty-looking slash by Flyers winger James van Riemsdyk to the left wrist of winger James Neal.
First Published February 19, 2012 12:00 am
