Take that, Pens: Dramatic Flyers grab series lead

1. If at first, you don’t succeed

Those slow starts were bound to catch up to the Flyers eventually, right? Not yet.

The Orange and Black fell behind 3-0 in the first period — 2-0 in the first eight minutes — but rallied once again to win it in overtime, 4-3. They have now faced two-goal deficits in nine of their last 13 games. “We struggled all year with beginning of games,” said Jake Voracek, who talliled the game-winner. “We came back and got a win against them.”

2. Jekyll and Bryz

The biggest key to this series is Ilya Bryzgalov.

The off-again, on-again Flyers goaltender was shaky in the first period, allowing three goals on 13 shots, then turned it by blanking the Pens on 25 straight shots. Some of which were of the spectacular variety. Also credit the penalty-kill unit and the goalpost for denying two big Penguins chances that could have blown the game wide open.

3. Danny Playoffs

No one knew whether Danny Briere was going to play until yesterday’s morning skate. Not only did he play but returned to usual playoff form.

Briere notched two goals — the 43rd and 44th playoff goals of his career — to keep hope alive. He fooled the Pens on a would-be line change on the first, then pulled the Flyers within one in the third on a classic Briere goal. Seconds later, he drew the penalty to cause the power play that setup Brayden Schenn’s game-tying goal. Voracek won it just 2:23 into the overtime.