Pittsburgh win playoff opener against Flyers

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The Pittsburgh Penguins won the opening game of their NHL playoff with a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday.

Russian Evgeni Malkin scored two goals for the Penguins after Mike Richards netted twice in five minutes to put the Flyers in front in the Eastern Conference finals.

Pittsburgh's Petr Sykora opened the scoring with a backhand finish in the seventh minute of the first period. Richards then scored his double before Sidney Crosby tied the game at 2-2.

Malkin put the Penguins ahead in the 20th minute with a wrist shot on a Ryan Whitney assist. In the second period the Russian made sure with a slap shot to make it 4-2.

"We made some mistakes in the first couple of periods that were very uncharacteristic of the hockey team," said a disappointed Richards.

"Give them credit, they had an opportunistic team and capitalized on all of their chances," he added.

Flyers coach John Stevens said: "I thought we had the start we wanted. We had the shots on net, we had the lead. We just didn't manage a puck as a group of five on the ice. Our support got too far away."

The Flyers will now have to repeat their achievements in coming from behind to win against Washington and Montreal.

"We were aware of how they scored their goals against Washington and against Montreal, and we mentioned it to the players and worked on it in practice," Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien said.

"But having not played for a week, the competitive level is not quite there.

"We certainly approached (the issue) again with our players (at the first break), and I believe they did a great job in the second and third," he added.

(Reporting by Simon Evans in Miami; editing by Martin Petty)