PITTSBURGH (AP) — The sequence might as well have served as a metaphor of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season.
There was Sidney Crosby, his left knee throbbing after absorbing a blistering shot from the point by teammate Ryan Shea, limping off the ice and disappearing down the tunnel in the second period of Game 5 on Monday night against Philadelphia.
A few minutes later, with the Penguins' longtime captain still out of sight, the Flyers tied it. Suddenly, a contest Pittsburgh had controlled for significant stretches was gone. The young Flyers, many of them experiencing the cauldron of playoff hockey for the first time, were surging. A quick playoff exit for a team that spent six months defying expectations loomed.
And just like that, Crosby's familiar No. 87 returned to the bench. And just like that, he was over the boards and on the ice. And just like that, he was finishing off a shift by flipping the puck to Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang at the top of the Flyers' zone.
Crosby's back was to the play when Letang's somewhat innocent shot from the point sailed wide of the Philadelphia net. Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar kept his eyes forward, expecting a big rebound. It never came.
The puck instead glanced off the back of Vladar's left leg, then his right and trickled across the goal line to provide the goal that turned out to be the game-winner as Pittsburgh fended off elimination and forced maybe more than a little doubt into the mind of the Flyers, whose once-comfortable 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series no longer feels quite so comfortable after Pittsburgh's 3-2 victory.
Game 6 is in Philadelphia on Wednesday, and the Penguins will head across the state not only with momentum, but also with their unquestioned leader starting to look like his old self after an uncommonly quiet start.
Save for his brief retreat to the trainer's room, Crosby was everywhere. He assisted on Connor Dewar's goal in the second period, got another primary assist on Letang's second goal in as many games and nearly added a goal himself when his diving flick toward the Flyers’ open net in the final minutes clanged off the left post.
So much for looking every bit of 38. Monday night was vintage Crosby.
“When things get hard and your back is against the wall, there is no doubt in my mind that he’s going to lead the charge in terms of elevating and finding a way to do everything possible to help us win this game," first-year Penguins coach Dan Muse said.
Crosby has 21 points in 24 games in his career when facing elimination. His 100th career playoff victory looked an awful lot like the 99 that came before it, with Crosby doing a little bit of everything, including taking a wallop off his left knee, then returning a few minutes later as if nothing happened.
“I feel good,” he said. “I mean, that’s stuff that happens sometimes and you try to go to the front of the net and it’s just one of those ones that found its way. Sometimes they hit you, sometimes they go by.”
Crosby absorbed a direct hit, albeit from friendly fire, and bounced back immediately. It's been that way all season for the Penguins, whose surprising season has been marked by righting themselves just when it looked like things were about to get sideways.
What they're trying to pull off now would trump everything that came before it by a wide margin. The odds remain slim — only four teams have ever rallied after losing the first three games of a series — but they're not as slim as they were when the puck dropped for Game 4.
Crosby will take it. So will his team.
“I think the last couple games we found our stride a bit,” he said. "We should feel good about that ... we’re playing good hockey and we’ve got to go in there and find a way to win again.”
