Penguins Come Up One Game Short, 5-3 : Flyers Keep Them From Equaling Record of 8 Straight at Start

The Pittsburgh Penguins lost their chance at the record book Thursday night, but the Philadelphia Flyers kept theirs alive.

The Flyers, with Mark Howe scoring one goal and assisting on three others, broke the Penguins’ seven-game winning streak with a 5-3 victory.

The Penguins fell one short of the season-opening record of eight consecutive wins, set by the 1934 Toronto Maple Leafs and tied by the 1975 Buffalo Sabres.

The victory left the Flyers undefeated and untied in six games.

“We were really up for tonight’s game,” Flyer center Peter Zezel said. “We wanted to break the streak.”

Added Flyer Tim Kerr: “We’re undefeated and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Pittsburgh left wing Warren Young looked ahead. “We’ve gotten off to a good start,” he said. “We just have to forget about breaking records and take it from here.”

Rich Tocchet scored what proved to be the game-winner when he redirected Howe’s shot from the point past goalie Gilles Meloche to give the Flyers a 4-1 lead at 3:00 of the third period.

Philadelphia opened the scoring at 5:53 of the first period when Howe took a pass from Kerr at the left faceoff circle and fired a 40-foot shot over Meloche’s right shoulder.

Ilkka Sinisalo gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead when he picked up a loose puck at his own blue line, broke away and fired a 15-foot shot past Meloche at 10:32.

Pittsburgh scored less than a minute later when Ron Duguay centered a pass in the slot to Young, who fired a 20-foot wrist shot past Philadelphia goalie Bob Froese.

Pelle Eklund’s 20-foot shot at 3:20 of the second period increased the Flyers’ lead to 3-1. Five minutes later, Mario Lemieux backhanded a shot past Froese to close the gap to 4-2. It was his 11th goal.

Kerr ended the Flyers’ scoring at 11:01 of the third period on a pass from Howe. John Chabot scored for the Penguins with 22 seconds remaining.