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PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The last one took five overtimes. This one
didn't take five minutes.
Andy Delmore, whose game-winning goal started Philadelphia's
comeback from a 2-0 series deficit, tied a playoff record for a
defenseman with three goals as the Flyers beat the Pittsburgh
Penguins 6-3 Sunday for a 3-2 lead in Eastern Conference
semifinals.
|  | | Philadelphia Flyers goalie Brian Boucher, right, knocks away a shot by Penguins' tough guy Matthew Barnaby. |
Mark Recchi had a goal and four assists and the Flyers fed off
the momentum created by winning the third-longest game in NHL
history -- and the fans who could barely wait until Sunday to
celebrate it.
The Flyers, clearly revved up by their historic 2-1,
five-overtime victory in Game 4 Thursday night -- the NHL's longest
in 64 years -- scored Sunday in the opening minute of the first two
periods. They owned a 3-0 lead with 16 seconds gone in the second
period.
"It's all about confidence, and that's what winning the
(five-overtime) game did for us," said Daymond Langkow, who scored
with 23 seconds gone as the Flyers needed only 3:27 to open a 2-0
lead.
Recchi had only one goal in the Flyers' first nine playoff
games, but said, "Everything was going in today. It was a huge
start for us. We wanted to show them that we had a lot of energy
even after the long game, and we were going to make it difficult
for them."
The road team had won the first four games of the series. No
team has won an NHL playoff series by winning four road games.
Recchi, a major contributor to the Penguins' 1991 Stanley Cup
championship, had a hand in each of Philadelphia's first five
goals, twice setting up Delmore, who had only two goals in 26
regular-season games.
Delmore, an undrafted rookie defenseman, has five goals in the
series -- as many as NHL scoring champion Jaromir Jagr, who wasn't a
factor for the second game in a row.
Jagr left early in the second period, apparently with a pulled
left quadriceps muscle, as the seventh-seeded Penguins lost their
third in a row after stunning the top-seeded Flyers in the first
two games in Philadelphia. Jagr estimates he has a 90 percent
chance of playing Game 6 Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
"It was hard to come back after the last game. It was tough on
everyone," said Jagr, who won the scoring title despite missing a
quarter of the season with various injuries.
The Penguins talked beforehand of getting off to a quick start
to prove there was no carryover effect from the Flyers'
middle-of-the-night victory that ended at 2:35 a.m. Friday.
Instead, it was Philadelphia that came out flying.
The Flyers got a breakaway on their first shift, with Langkow
steering in a backhander from the hashmarks along the right circle
by goaltender Ron Tugnutt pass with 23 seconds gone.
TV replays appeared to show the puck glancing off Recchi's skate
while he was offside, but, even if the goal shouldn't have counted,
the Flyers had plenty more of them left.
Tugnutt, obviously flustered by giving up a quick goal after
making saves on 70 of the Flyers' first 71 shots in Game 4, was
beaten again at 3:27 by Delmore on a slap shot from the right point
on a power play.
"That goal was like a Phil Niekro knuckler," said Tugnutt, who
began the game with the best save percentage in the playoffs but
was pulled after two periods.
Defenseman Dan McGillis said, "We got to him (Tugnutt) pretty
early and the first goal might have shaken him up. Maybe the first
two goals did take jump out of them."
The Flyers also scored in the opening seconds of the second
period as Dan McGillis one-timed Recchi's pass by Tugnutt with 16
seconds gone.
"We couldn't recover in just 48 hours from Game 4, that was
just a marathon, so we took short shifts all day, and that was a
key," McGillis said.
Delmore also scored at 17:50 of the second, skating down the
slot to take John LeClair's pass and flip it over Tugnutt, and
added his third of the game at 5:17 of the third against backup
goaltender Peter Skudra.
Recchi added a power-play goal in the second period, the Flyers'
third goal in a span of four power plays after they started the
series 0-for-17 with the man advantage.
"The goal in overtime the other night (in Game 3) was the
highlight of my career so far," Delmore said. "When the third one
went in today, that's a great feeling, too. There aren't words to
describe how I felt."
Defensemen scored four of the Flyers' six goals, and Tugnutt
said it's not a coincidence.
"Their best offense is their defensemen jumping into the
play," he said.
Tyler Wright's goal at 15:06 of the second ended a scoreless
streak of 184 minutes, 45 seconds by Flyers rookie goaltender Brian
Boucher, who turned aside 29 of 32 shots. Darius Kasparaitis and
Rob Brown also scored for Pittsburgh.
The Penguins now find themselves down 3-2 after winning the
first two games on the road, a scenario with which they are very
familiar.
In 1996, they lost the first two at home to Washington, then
regained control by winning a four-overtime game that, until
Thursday, was the third-longest in NHL history. The Penguins went
on to win in six games.
"We had our chance at home but lost two overtime games, and
that hurt a lot," Kasparaitis said of the Penguins' current
predicament. "With a little luck, we're not even here today for
Game 5. But I'm sure we'll see a Game 7."
The Flyers are trying to rally from a 2-0 deficit for the first
time since they beat Toronto in six games in 1977.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Pittsburgh Clubhouse
Philadelphia Clubhouse
RECAPS
Philadelphia 6
Pittsburgh 3
Dallas 4
San Jose 1
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Andy Delmore nets his third goal of the game.
avi: 620 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Andy Delmore scores on the 3-on-1 break.
avi: 781 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Mark Recchi takes the centering feed and beats Ron Tugnutt.
avi: 791 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Philadelphia's Andy Delmore scores off the face-off.
avi: 731 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Daymond Langkow scores 23 seconds into the game.
avi: 739 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
Darius Kasparaitis scores off the one timer from Martin Straka.
avi: 492 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
 Andy Delmore says he felt fine on Sunday.
wav: 67 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Craig Ramsey gives credit for Delmore's success.
wav: 196 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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