A 6-0 win for the Penguins in 2008 sent them back to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 16 years.
Sixteen years ago today, Mellon Arena was the site of a thrashing in the Battle of Pennsylvania. A 6-0 win for the Penguins against the Flyers sent Pittsburgh back to the Stanley Cup Final.
Just one year removed from the team’s first playoff appearance in their new era with the young guns of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and Marc-Andre Fleury leading the way, the Penguins ran roughshod through the Eastern Conference and established themselves as a true powerhouse.
A 4-0 sweep of the Senators in the first round was followed by a 4-1 series win over the Rangers that had the Penguins riding high headed into the Eastern Conference Final. This series against the Flyers would be no different.
The Penguins got out to a 3-0 series lead before the Flyers forced a fifth game and it was no contest for Pittsburgh in Game 5 as they clinched the Prince of Wales trophy in an emphatic fashion.
2008 marked the first time the Penguins defeated the Flyers in a playoff series. Despite proximity in distance and being in the same division, Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia was not a frequent playoff matchup in the early days of the twin franchises founded in 1967. The first series meeting between the PA teams didn’t happen until 1989. The teams would meet again in 1997 and 2000, all Flyer wins. The Crosby era would usher in a sea-change in the PIT/PHI balance of power — the Penguins have gone onto win three out of the last four playoffs series against their cross-state rival after losing the first three in the pre-Crosby days.
In Game 5, an early goal from Pittsburgh’s native son Ryan Malone got things started and the Penguins never looked back.
The score was 2-0 at the end of the first period courtesy of an Evgeni Malkin goal and the Pens stayed on the gas pedal and added three more tallies from Malone again, Marian Hossa and Jordan Staal in the second period to remove all doubt about the outcome of the game and series.
Before you knew it, after Pascal Dupuis added the team’s sixth goal, Marc-Andre Fleury took care of all 21 shots the Flyers threw his way, and the game was over. It was time for the victors to celebrate and receive the Prince of Wales Trophy.
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Photo by Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images
Unlike Mario Lemieux in 1991 and 1992, Pens’ captain Sidney Crosby elected to go with a superstition to not touch the trophy. (Crosby would later reverse course and be sure to skate the Prince of Wales away in 2009, 2016 and 2017 when given the opportunity, and coincidentally or not Pittsburgh would go onto win the Stanley Cup in all three later instances.)
In retrospect, perhaps we didn’t appreciate just how easy this Penguins team made their ride to the Cup Final look when they compiled a 12-2 record in the first three rounds of the playoffs in their coming out party. Through three rounds, Crosby scored 21 points (4G+17A) in the 14 games, Hossa and Malkin recorded a matching 19 points and identical 9G+10A split to provide the star power needed for the Pens to leave their conference rivals in the dust.
Pittsburgh would lose the Stanley Cup Final to Detroit in six games, setting in motion the famous rematch in the following year. But on this day in history the arrow was pointing up, up, up for the Pens to step back into the limelight.
