5 THINGS: Penguins vs. Flyers

Philadelphia Flyers (1-2) vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (2-1)
ROUND 1 - GAME 4: Pittsburgh Leads Series, 2-1
at Wells Fargo Center | Philadelphia, PA
TIME: 7:00 p.m.| TV: NBCSP | RADIO: 97.5 The Fanatic
presented by The Rothman Institute at Jefferson Hospital
QUICK STATS
Regular Season Series:0-2-2
Playoff All-Time Record:
Games: 38gp (20-18)
Series: 6 Series (4 wins, 2 losses)
Leading Scorers:
PHI: 3-pts, Sean Couturier (1g-2a)
PIT: 7-pts, Sidney Crosby (4g-3a)

1. EVEN STEVEN
When playing Games 3 and 4 on home ice, the Flyers have not lost both of those games at home in a series since the 1989 Wales Conference Finals to the Montreal Canadiens, a span of 15 series since then... The Flyers enter Game 4 looking to even the series at 2-2... They have been in this situation 28 times in franchise history and have an even record of 14-14 in Game 4's when trailing 1-2, as well as an 8-6 record in Game 4's at home when trailing 1-2... In any situation, the Flyers own a 15-6 record in Game 4's on home ice... The Pens have an even record in Game 4's, going 31-31, including a 21-18 in Game 4's on the road, but own an 11-14 record in Game 4's when leading a series 2-1 to take a 3 games to 1 lead.
2. FIRST AND SPECIAL
Thus far in the three games, the team that has scored first has won the game... During the regular season the Flyers earned points in 29 of 35 games when they have scored first, owning a 23-6-6 record, while the Penguins posted a 33-9-5 mark when scoring first... The team that has won the battle on special teams has also come out on top in the series thus far... The Pens killed off all four penalties in Game 1 and went 1-for-4 on the power-play, while the Flyers went 2-for-3 on the power-play and killed off all four Pens power plays in Game 2... Game 3 saw the Pens go 3-for-7 on the man advantage and kill off all six Flyers power plays.
3. DEFENSE ON OFFENSE
The Flyers defense has accounted for three of the club's six goals in the series and have four defensemen who have recorded points (Gostisbehere, MacDonald, Provorov & Sanheim) for five points (3g-2a)... They have fired 30 shots on goal in the first three games of the series, while the Penguins have fired 31 shots thus far... The Pens defense have had all of their scoring from three players (Dumoulin, Letang & Schultz), combining for 11 points (2g-9a) led by Brian Dumoulin with five points (1g-4a)... Ivan Provorov leads all defensemen on both teams in the series with an average of 25:10.
4. STORY OF LINES
Yesterday's line shuffle at practices saw a shift of Jake Voracek on the top line with Giroux & Couturier and Wayne Simmonds took practice with Travis Konecny and Nolan Patrick, while Jordan Weal took shifts with Valtteri Filppula and Michael Raffl - should he get into Game 4, Weal posted four points (2g-2a) in four games against the Penguins in the season series... The Pens practice saw a shift of lines in which Phil Kessel took practice on a line with Evgeni Malkin and Carl Hagelin... The Pens announced that forward Patric Hornqvist will not play in Game 4 due to an upper-body injury - he had a five-game playoff point streak dating back to last season for Pittsburgh.
5. PLAYERS TO WATCH:
FLYERS (C: #19 - Nolan Patrick)
Patrick has put up points in two games with a goal and an assist, and had chances in all three games of the series, while logging close to 17 minutes of ice time, compared to his average of 14:43 of ice time in the regular season ... After a slow start to his rookie season, Patrick has taken off since the NHL All-Star break, recording 10 of his 13 goals and 21 of his 30 points in the 33 games since then.
PENGUINS (D: #6 - Justin Schultz)
Pens defenseman has points in all three games, recording a goal and two assists, while logging 21:39 of ice time and leading all d-men in the series with 11 shots on goal... Dating back to last season's playoffs, Schultz has points in five straight postseason games for the Penguins... In the season series, Schultz recorded six points, all assists, and was a plus-7 rating in four games.