Malkin, Crosby each score twice to lead Penguins
PHILADELPHIA -- Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby each scored a pair of goals, including the 300th of Malkin's NHL career, to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Malkin's second goal came 8:33 into the third period and stood up as the winner for the Penguins, who have won three in a row and lead the Metropolitan Division with a 6-2-1 record.
Matt Cullen also scored for the Penguins, who continue their four-game road trip Wednesday night in Anaheim, Calif. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who has played every game this season with Matt Murray injured, turned aside 38 shots.
Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel each picked up two assists for the Penguins.
The Flyers (3-5-1) received two goals from Jake Voracek and one apiece by Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux, but lost for the second straight time and third in four games.
Philadelphia entered the game with the NHL's third-worst goals-against average. Starter Steve Mason allowed three goals on 13 first-period shots and was pulled in favor of Michal Neuvirth, who stopped 12 of 14 shots.
After blowing a two-goal lead in the first period, the Flyers erased a two-goal deficit in the second period to tie the score at 4-4 through 40 minutes.
Malkin scored his fourth goal of the season midway through the second period off a defensive zone turnover by the Flyers' Sean Couturier to give the Penguins a 4-2 lead on their fourth consecutive goal.
The Flyers outshot the Penguins 15-5 in the second period battled back to tie on Giroux's first goal of the season and Voracek's second of the game. Giroux drew the Flyers within 4-3 at the 13:16 mark when, after an excellent offensive zone keep-in by the Flyers' Radko Gudas, he drilled a one-timer past Fleury.
Voracek was awarded a penalty shot with 4:32 remaining in the second when he was hauled down by Brian Dumoulin and converted with a nice inside-outside move on Fleury for his fifth goal of the season.
Voracek didn't score his fifth goal last season until the Flyers' 41st game.
The first period was a wild one, with the Flyers grabbing a 2-0 lead only to see the Penguins answer with three goals in 55 seconds.
Voracek got it all started at 9:48 when he snapped a shot past a screened Fleury. It was the first time the Flyers opened the scoring since their season opener.
Simmonds netted his sixth goal of the season at 13:02 when he ripped an artistic backhand pass from Brayden Schenn into an open net. Simmonds didn't net his sixth goal until the 25th game of last season.
The Penguins didn't take long to regain the lead. Crosby's first goal of the night came from close to the goal line when he took a return pass from Patric Hornqvist and roofed a shot over the right shoulder of Mason, who allowed a similar bad-angle goal by Arizona's Ryan White on Thursday night.
Flyers rookie Ivan Provorov took a hooking penalty 31 seconds later and Crosby made the Flyers pay, this time snapping his fourth goal of the season past Mason from the low slot. It was Crosby's 35th goal in 56 career games against the Flyers, his most against any NHL team.
Only 12 seconds later, before the Philadelphia crowd could finish booing the Penguins' captain, Pittsburgh took a 3-2 lead on Cullen's second goal of the season, a behind-the-net stuffer with 3:21 remaining in the opening period.
NOTES: Penguins D Kris Letang sat out his fifth straight game with an upper body injury. David Warsofsky took his place in the lineup. Letang is expected to return to the lineup when the Penguins begin a three-game journey through California on Wednesday night. They'll face the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday and the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. ... Flyers veteran D Andrew MacDonald (one goal, one assist, minus-3 in eight games) was a healthy scratch for the first time this season. D Nick Schultz took his place in the lineup. ... The Flyers visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night. They'll play three of their next four games and four of their next six on the road.