Philadelphia -- The Flyers and Penguins always play hard but with the HBO 24/7 cameras around, it seemed to ramp things up just a bit more. With that said the game showed why both teams are in an elite group in the East. The Flyers 3-2 win also put them in first place in the Atlantic.

“Yeah, it's fun right now," said Flyers forward, Scott Hartnell. "One day here and we got one win so that's a pretty good start...But yeah, you can tell they're around but they're not too intrusive. They're not right in your face with a big camera where you don't know how to act or you don't know what to do. So they're lurking in the weeds a little bit and we'll see how this month goes leading up to the Winter Classic, but we know what our job is. We have to get wins and get points, and hopefully we have a good little run and we look good on TV.”

Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov (stopped 25 shots) was playing back-to-back games and clearly the team and head coach Peter Laviolette would like to get him on a roll after their win yesterday in Buffalo.

It was apparent early that Bryzgalov was going to have a good game. He made a nice save by hugging the post early in the first period and soon after teammate Danny Briere got the Flyers on board first when he took a shot that caromed off the leg of Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik to give his team the 1-0 lead at 6:38 in the opening period.

The Flyers did manage to hold off the Penguins 5-on-3 in the first period and the score was 1-0 after one.

Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds scored the Flyers second goal, a power play goal when Jakub Voracek fed the Flyers forward and banged the puck past Marc-Andre Fleury (stopped 26 shots) at 8:42 of the middle period. At that point in the game the Flyers were dominating.

The Flyers made it 3-0 when Scott Hartnell took a nice cross-ice pass from Andrej Meszaros who was working off the rush at 13:32 and then the Penguins came charging back.

At 14:10 Penguins star Evgeni Malkin made an amazing angled pass to James Neal who could have shot the puck through the back of the net on a one-timer that found the twine to make it a 3-1 game. It was a power play goal.

Malkin then made it a 3-2 game when he skillfully shot one five-hole on the Flyers goaltender who thought he had that angle covered. At 8:21 the Penguins were making a game out of it. Malkin seemed to be ratcheting his game once again in the absence of captain, Sidney Crosby.

The game was tight and with a few ticks left on the clock, Malkin took a shot that Bryzgalov sticked up into the netting just at the last minute. It was a strong save that preserved a win.

“He played well tonight,” said the NHL’s leading scorer, Claude Giroux. “He made some key saves for us to keep that lead. In the third period, when we kind of ran out of gas a little bit, but we stayed in there and got the two points.”

Former Penguin Max Talbot talked about playing against his old team for the first time since he signed with the Flyers.

"Emotionally it was exciting. I took it as a challenge. It was two months before I had a chance to play the Penguins. So, the guys battled and everybody knew. A lot of guys in the dressing room when there was goal they were looking at me. It was great, it was a great feeling and everybody battled hard. It's behind me now."

Jaromir Jagr had a solid game. There were quite a few Penguins fans in attendance and #68 did sense that.
“Bad energy? I felt it when I missed the net,” he joked. “At least everybody was happy. Their fans were happy that I didn’t score and I’m happy we won the game. I just make everybody happy. You have to find a way to make everybody happy. That’s what I did tonight.”

The Penguins recently called up a former #1 pick, Simon Despres. In 14:15 of ice time he blocked four shots. He played on the PK, and at even strength he covered his zone well. He showed good discipline. He knows where to go on the ice. He was playing it safe in the early going. He could still be physically stronger and at some point his offense should shine through.

#2012 Winter Classic