Flyers hold off Penguins rally to stay alive

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Philadelphia Flyers scored three first-period goals in a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday, the win keeping the home team alive in their Eastern Conference finals.

After their fast start, the Flyers saw their three-goal cushion shrink to one on a pair of third-period goals by Jordan Staal before Joffrey Lupul scored an empty-netter with 32.3 seconds left to clinch victory.

The Penguins lead the best-of-seven series 3-1 and can clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup Finals in front of their home fans in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Lupul opened the scoring for the desperate Flyers with a slap shot through goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.

Danny Briere and Jeff Carter extended the advantage by stuffing in powerplay goals off rebounds to give Philadelphia a 3-0 lead.

Staal made for a tense finish after finding the net past Flyers goalie Martin Biron at 3:16 and 14:11 of the third period, assisted both times by new line mates Tyler Kennedy and Max Talbot.

Lupul scored his second goal of the game around 30 seconds after Pittsburgh had pulled Fleury when he secured the puck at mid-ice and blasted it home into the open net.

BIG SAVES

"They played with desperation in front of the net," Penguins coach Michel Therrien told reporters.

"They capitalized on their breaks, their chances and after that we were on our heels."

Biron made some big saves in the early exchanges before the three-goal salvo gave Philadelphia some breathing room.

"We played an excellent first period and that made the difference for us," said Biron, who made 36 saves.

"It gave us a bit of a cushion the rest of the game."

The disciplined Flyers took advantage of their powerplays and avoided giving Pittsburgh many extra man chances.

"You can't win games when you're losing the battle of the special teams," Therrien said.

"They are disciplined. I have to give a lot of credit to that team because we don't have a power play, we only had two tonight. They were disciplined."

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said his team had to play smart and avoid bad penalties.

"We have to play to our strengths," he said.

"That's our skating, our speed and our skill, and being physical in a disciplined way."

Biron said the Flyers would try to carry the same spirit into Game Five.

"It's going to be tough," the goalie said.

"Any team can win. Today we decided to let loose and play and have fun and we're going to try and do that on Sunday."

(Writing by Larry Fine in New York, Editing by John O'Brien)