Crosby hits milestone, Flyers give up 2-goal lead in 3rd period for OT loss

The Flyers, desperate for a road win and any positives in this 2021-22 season, had an upset brewing Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.

In an 18-second span, it all dissipated.

The club coughed up a 4-2 third-period lead en route to a 5-4 overtime loss to the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Kris Letang scored his second OT winner against the Flyers this season. In 18 seconds, Jake Guentzel (power play) and Chad Ruhwedel (even strength) wiped out the Flyers' two-goal lead with under seven and a half minutes left during regulation.

Claude Giroux, Scott Laughton, Nick Seeler and Justin Braun scored for the Flyers (15-24-9), who have yet to win a road game in 2022.

The Flyers are 0-1-2 against the Metropolitan Division-leading Penguins (31-11-8). The two clubs meet once more April 24 in Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh has gone 21-3-3 in its last 27 games. The Flyers, on the other hand, are 9-22-7 since their 6-2-2 start and are set to aggressively sell at the March 21 trade deadline.

• This one hurts for interim head coach Mike Yeo and company because the Flyers put themselves in position to finally feel good about something again.

They scored more than three goals in a game for just the second time since the holiday break. Three of their four goals came in the second period after Giroux opened the game's scoring in the first period.

Cutting the Flyers' lead to 4-3, the Guentzel goal came after Isaac Ratcliffe was called for tripping. On his 23rd birthday, Ratcliffe was playing in just his fifth NHL game.

To go along with his 16th goal, Giroux played a season-high 23:39 minutes and won 16 of 23 faceoffs.

Time will tell if this was his last matchup with the rival Penguins in a Flyers jersey.

More: Giroux trade talk and theory on York decision in 3 Flyers thoughts

• In apropos fashion, Sidney Crosby scored his 500th career goal on his 50th lifetime against the Flyers.

The 50 career regular-season goals against the Flyers are his most versus any NHL opponent.

The three-time Stanley Cup champion scored No. 500 on a first-period power play as Pittsburgh went into first intermission with a 2-1 lead.

Ivan Provorov was excellent defensively on Crosby, making a few timely checks to break up potential scoring chances during the third period when the Flyers were ahead 4-2.

Provorov played 29:56 minutes. Crosby finished with two points (one goal, one assist).

• For a second straight game, the Flyers were without Rasmus Ristolainen and Derick Brassard.

Ristolainen (upper body) was placed on injured reserve before the game.

Brassard has missed 28 of the last 31 games because of a troubling hip issue. The 34-year-old center has returned three times from the injury to only come back out of the lineup the very next game each time.

"There are obviously reasons why the soreness continues to come up," Yeo said Monday. "He'll be out until we feel more confident that the strength can fully be there to keep him in the lineup.

"Being out is not just going to correct it. It's the physiotherapy, the things that have to be done in that time. We kept him out for quite a long period of time with this last one. There was talk about him maybe playing before the break, I thought we were being pretty careful to keep him out of that game. ... We took the decision to give him another week, to allow him to skate for another week, so that still didn't do the job.

"Obviously we're going to have to do some things a little bit differently here while he's out for this next period of time in order to get him in and keep him in."

Gerry Mayhew was also out because his eye was swollen from the scary spill he took into the boards last Saturday.

On Tuesday night, the Flyers were without:

• Gerry Mayhew (eye)
• Rasmus Ristolainen (upper body)
• Derick Brassard (hip)
• Joel Farabee (upper body)
• Sean Couturier (back)
• Kevin Hayes (abdominal)
• Ryan Ellis (lower body)
• Patrick Brown (MCL sprain)
• Wade Allison (MCL sprain)
• Nate Thompson (shoulder)

• Carter Hart made 29 saves on 34 shots.

He denied all 18 of the Penguins' shots in the second period. There wasn't much he could do on Pittsburgh's goals in the third period and overtime.

Penguins goalie Casey DeSmith stopped 23 of the Flyers' 27 shots.

• The Flyers open an eight-game homestand Thursday when they host the Capitals (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

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