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PHILADELPHIA -- As soon as warmups began, the familiar boos for Sidney Crosby reverberated through the arena. Lavelle Hawkins Buccaneers Jersey . Flyers fans had long perfected that chorus against Philadelphias top antagonist. The sound grew louder after the final horn -- this time directed at the home team, the one buried in last place in the NHL. Crosby, Jussi Jokinen and Chris Kunitz scored goals, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 on Thursday night. The Penguins were the latest team to stomp the cellar-dwelling Flyers. Off to their worst start after eight games, the Flyers are 1-7 and mired in last place, with only a miserable two points. Consider, the Flyers have had more head coaches (2) than wins (1) this season. "Weve got to start believing in each other, believing in ourselves, and going out and play hockey like we can," coach Craig Berube said. Clearly, the coaching switch from Peter Laviolette, fired after an 0-3 start, to Berube isnt working. Evgeni Malkin added an empty-net goal in the final seconds, and Marc-Andre Fleury made an early lead stand with 24 saves. Fleury is 6-0 and has more wins than all but one team in the East. "He looks strong the whole season. He looked strong in the game," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. All the Penguins looked strong against the Flyers. The Penguins outplayed them from the opening faceoff, and nearly doubled the Flyers in shots through two periods. Crosby, who has 29 career goals against the Flyers, has a career-best, seven-game point streak to start the season. Unlike their cross-state rivals, the Penguins (6-1) are riding high atop the East. "Its nice to get rewarded early on, and to build some confidence and momentum," Crosby said. Wayne Simmonds had the lone goal for the Flyers, who have yet to score more than two in a game this season. The Penguins grabbed control for good in the second period, taking shot after point-blank shot at Steve Mason. At one point, the Penguins camped out in the Philadelphia zone and held a 20-8 shots advantage. Sprawled on the ice, Mason made two straight fantastic saves against Matt Kiskanen and Deryk Engelland. Again, the Flyers couldnt generate offence. Matt Read made a sweet steal at the blue line and took off on a breakaway but then whiffed from the circle. He slammed his stick against the boards on his shift change. The Flyers later failed on three attempts to clear the puck, and Jokinen pounced, scoring his fourth goal of the season for the 1-0 lead. Jokinen scored on Pittsburghs 22nd shot. The punchless Flyers didnt attempt their first shot of the second until 10 1-2 minutes in. "When youre only scoring one goal a game, its tough to win hockey games," Mason said. Kunitz punched in a rebound with 7:45 left for a 2-0 lead. Yet, as badly as they were outplayed, the Flyers hung tight. Simmonds screened Fleury and redirected Claude Girouxs shot with 2 seconds left to make it 2-1 and end Philadelphias 0 for 18 power-play skid. Giroux has had a miserable season and hasnt scored a goal. As captain, Giroux has taken the public stand that the Flyers can still turn around the season. "Tonight is going to be a game to bring the fans back on our side and show them were a good team and can win games," he said after the morning skate. So much for that. "Obviously, thats how I felt," Giroux said. "I think if we would have won that game, it would have been a big turning point. But it didnt happen." Crosbys tip-in with 2:32 left for his sixth goal of the season sealed the win. Giroux hooked Malkin only 1:01 into the game, and the Flyers were whistled for two penalties in the opening 6 minutes. Simmonds misfired on an open net, and Jakub Voracek got cute on an open look and failed on a backhander when he could have flicked in the puck. The Penguins won 12 of 20 faceoffs in the first, and dominated the rest of the way. About the only reason for Flyers fans to cheer came in the second intermission when the public address announcer said an assist had been taken away from Crosby. He entered with an NHL-high 12 points (five goals, seven assists). Crosby, though, got the point back. "You really just focus on your work ethic and making sure youre committed to doing what you need to do every night," Crosby said. "Sometimes, it doesnt work out that way, especially early on. But we found a way to win games for different reasons." NOTES: Flyers D Kimmo Timonen sustained a lower-body injury late in the second and didnt return. ... The Penguins have scored at least three goals in every game this season.Buccaneers #99 Jersey . On the first day of the Olympic trials for Canadas long-track speedskating team, Wotherspoon finished sixth in the mens 500 metres. According to Sean Ireland, Speed Skating Canadas long-track program director, that wont be good enough for the four-time Olympian from Red Deer, Alta. Akeem Spence Buccaneers Jersey . The (33-33-9) Jets have 75 points and trail Phoenix by nine points for a Western Conference Wild Card playoff spot. Ondrej Pavelec will start in goal. Jets Projected Lines: Ladd-Little-Frolik Byfuglien-Jokinen-Wheeler Kane-ODell-Halischuk Tangradi-Slater-Peluso Enstrom-Postma Stuart-Trouba Pardy-Redmond Michael Hutchinson will be Pavelecs back up tonight.DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The first full practice for the Daytona 500 ended early Wednesday after rookie Parker Kligermans airborne car ripped out a chunk of the grandstand fence. Kligermans car ended up sliding on its roof halfway down the front-stretch at Daytona International Speedway. No one was injured in the seven-car wreck, which stirred memories of last years last-lap crash in the second-tier Nationwide Series season opener at Daytona. Kyle Larsons car destroyed a large section of the catch-fence, sending debris into the stands and injuring nearly 30 people. The stands were virtually empty during practice Wednesday. The garage area, meanwhile, was buzzing with teams feverishly trying to fix cars or fine-tune backups for Thursdays dual qualifying races. "It happens every year," driver Joey Logano said. "You always hope youre the one thats not in it or you miss it. I saw it getting kind of crazy out there and youre kind of in the middle of it and you cant really get out of it at that point when youre in the middle. It was a little too late." Logano and Matt Kenseth started the melee when they got together coming out of turn 4 during a drafting session. Trevor Bayne hit Logano, who then slammed into Paul Menard. Menards car shot up the track and collected Kligerman. "You dont want to wreck in practice for sure," Kenseth said. "Honestly, the last lap and a half, I was just trying to figure out how to get out of there and get to the pits. But when youre stuck in the middle, you kind of got to wait until everything clears out." Kligermans car lifted off the ground, landed on top of Ryan Truexs hood then turned upside-down before coming to a stop across the track. "Youre not learning anything racing like that in practice," said Kligerman, one of eight rookies trying to make Sundays season-opening Daytona 500. "It was the first time Id ever flipped over. Id never done that in a race car. I assumed itd be rough, but it was actually soft. I saw the whole thing goo down. Mark Barron Buccaneers Jersey. . Im up in the fence kind of floating along. Thankfully, none of the fans got injured, I hope." Kligerman, though, wasnt happy with Logano and his No. 22 Ford. "The 22 was being overly aggressive. Its a shame," Kligerman said. "Hes supposed to be a veteran. You go up here to the Sprint Cup Series, its supposed to be the best of the best and a guy in a practice is racing people like its the end of the Daytona 500. ... I dont quite understand that one. I am pretty upset about how that all went down." Dave Blaney also was involved in the crash. Six of the seven cars involved in the wreck -- all but Kenseth -- went to backup cars. Blaney doesnt have a backup car, but was working to get one from another team. Swan Racing was the hardest hit. Not only was Kligermans car totalled, but teammate Cole Whitt also hammered the wall earlier in practice. Whitts accident caused Brian Vickers and Casey Mears to get together, and Jeff Gordon ended up with a piece of debris lodged in his hood. Swan had just one backup car, which went to Kligerman, so the team was forced to fix Whitts Toyota. Vickers also went to a backup car. All of the backup cars will have to start from the back of the field in Thursdays qualifying races. The damage to the fence was severe enough that NASCAR cancelled the rest of the practice session so workers could repair the small hole. Daytona officials said the fence held up as expected. Workers replaced one cable and some meshing, and no one in the stands was injured. Fifteen cars didnt get on track during the first session. That included six-time and defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, who wrecked one Daytona car in the exhibition Sprint Unlimited on Saturday night. "Not that we were going to draft in practice before that, but we really arent going to draft now," Johnson said. "We need to watch ourselves because were down to one good race car. We have other stuff at home, but we really dont want to bring it down here." ' ' ' |
