PITTSBURGH - With fewer than than 13 minutes to play in Game 2 and white towels waving furiously from the largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game at Consol Energy Center, Philadelphia's favorite mythical character, Rocky Balboa, was featured on the scoreboard that hangs over center ice.
"It ain't about how hard ya hit," Balboa said. "It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."
For this Flyers team, there seems to be no punch too powerful.
On Friday night, the Flyers repeatedly absorbed Pittsburgh's biggest blows. Each successive punch - and goal - was supposed to be bigger than the previous one. But the Flyers never recoiled.
And in the end, it was Flyers 8, Penguins 5.
"We find a way to win," the Flyers Max Talbot said. "It was nice to come here and win the first two games."
Instead of folding, the Flyers rallied - again - from four deficits, 2-0, 3-1, 4-3 and 5-4-with a furious push that made Wednesday night's Game 1 come-from-behind win blush. Jaromir Jagr finally put the Flyers in front for good with the game winner in an exhausting, everything-on-the-ice effort.
Rookie Sean Couturier, who scored just 13 goals all season, led the way for the Flyers with a hat trick. Claude Giroux gave the Flyers a second hat trick with an empty-netter with 6.9 seconds to play and ended the night with six points.
Somehow, the heavy underdog Flyers packed up and left Pittsburgh with an unbelievable lead of two games to none lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal prize fight.
Game 3 is Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center.
Game 2 featured just about everything - from highlight-reel saves, to momentum-swinging penalty kills to bone-crunching hits to the 13 collective goals - you could ask of a playoff hockey game. The only thing missing was an overtime script.
Amazingly, Jagr's goal with 10 minutes, 47 seconds left in the third period gave the Flyers their first regulation lead of the series. Jake Voracek's Game 1 overtime marker was the Flyers' only lead in Game 1. Unlike the Penguins, the Flyers protected their scant edge like a rare, national treasure.
Undoubtedly, the Flyers are in the drivers seat as the series shifts across the Commonwealth to Philadelphia. The Flyers have never lost a best-of-seven series (17-0) when leading two games to none. They are also 29-7 in a series when winning Game 2, regardless of standing.
For the Flyers, for the countless time this season and the second night this week, no lead was insurmountable. Despite allowing two power play tallies to Chris Kunitz, the Flyers countered with two shorthanded goals of their own.
Talbot and Claude Giroux accounted for the shorthanded tallies. The last time the Flyers posted two shorties in a single playoff game was April 26, 1997, also against Pittsburgh.
Game 2 started just as ugly as Game 1 for the Flyers. Sidney Crosby (who else?) threw the first jab before "Home of the Brave" was barely belted out of the national anthem singer's lips. Crosby danced around Matt Carle for a give-and-go with Steve Sullivan, sliding to one knee for a Tim Tebow inspired one-timer and a rallying cry for the Penguins faithful.
Kunitz added to the Penguins' lead less than 10 minutes later. And then the Flyers woke up.
Few players came up bigger for the Flyers than Couturier, who not only kept likely Hart Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin to two points in the first two games. He then added two goals in a span of 68 seconds that wrapped around the second intermission. Tyler Kennedy's goal, which made it 5-4, split those goals. Couturier added the Flyers' insurance goal in the waning minutes.
It was Couturier, though, who made it even up with 2.8 seconds left in the second period.
Contact Frank Seravalli at seravaf@phillynews.com or @DNFlyers on Twitter. Read his blog, Frequent Flyers, at www.philly.com/frequentflyers.
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