Flyers, Kings advance to next NHL playoffs round

Claude Giroux had a goal and two assists on Saturday as the Philadelphia Flyers finally finished off the Pittsburgh Penguins to reach the second round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. Philadelphia triumphed 5-1 to wrap up the best-of-seven first-round series in six games. They had led the series 3-0 before the Penguins won twice to fend off elimination. In the late game, Jarret Stoll scored in overtime as the Los Angeles Kings upset the top seeded Vancouver Canucks with a 2-1 victory at Vancouver's Rogers Arena. Ilya Bryzgalov made 30 saves for the Flyers, who became the first Eastern Conference team to advance. Giroux beat Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a slap shot 32 seconds into the contest. The Flyers All-Star center started hot, knocking down Penguins star Sidney Crosby six seconds into the game and firing his unassisted goal on the same shift. Giroux assisted on Scott Hartnell's power-play goal at 13:01 of the first and Erik Gustafsson's long range blast at 5:25 of the second that made it 3-0. Evgeni Malkin scored for Pittsburgh on a power play in the second period to trim the deficit to 3-1. Only 34 seconds later, Danny Briere scored for Philadelphia with a shot that trickled across the line through Fleury's legs, with the goal confirmed on official review. The Flyers capped it off with an empty-net goal in the waning moments. Stoll scored just four minutes and 27 seconds into the overtime and it came off a two-on-one break for the Kings who became the 10th No. 8 seed to upset a No. 1 seed since the current playoff format began in 1994. The Kings won the best-of-seven series four games to one. Vancouver is the sixth Presidents' Trophy winner to be eliminated in the first round. The President's Trophy is awarded annually to the NHL team that finishes with the most points in the regular season. The Canucks lost in game seven of the last year's Stanley Cup finals to Boston.