NEW JERSEY VS. TORONTO BUFFALO VS. PITTSBURGH COLORADO VS. LOS ANGELES DALLAS VS. ST. LOUIS

Thursday, April 26 Working overtime -- literally Joy Russo ESPN.com The Penguins always had the Capitals' number in the playoffs, and Pittsburgh's first-round elimination of Washington in 2000 was further proof of it. Flyers 4, Penguins 2 Date Result Goalie 4/27 Pens 2, Flyers 0 Tugnutt 4/29 Pens 4, Flyers 1 Tugnutt 5/2 Flyers 4, Pens 3 Boucher 5/4 Flyers 2, Pens 1 Boucher 5/7 Flyers 6, Pens 3 Boucher 5/9 Flyers 2, Pens 1 Boucher The Philadelphia Flyers – the Pens' second-round opponent – was a different story. Not only was Pittsburgh 0-2 in playoff series against the Flyers, losing in seven games in 1989 and five in Mario Lemieux's last series in 1997, the team was 0-4-1 against them during the regular season. Throw in a 16-game losing skid in Philly, and the Penguins had some big demons to fight. One thing boding in Pittsburgh's favor was the absence of Eric Lindros, who was sidelined due to postconcussion syndrome. Another was the Pens had nothing to lose – even with Jaromir Jagr, Pittsburgh was not expected to move past the Flyers. Jagr scored three goals in the first two games and Ron Tugnutt allowed just one goal to help the Penguins take a surprising 2-0 series lead back to the Igloo. But could the Pens pull out two more wins? The turnaround? One overtime in the playoffs is one thing, two is another. Five overtimes crosses the line of hockey delirium. After Andy Delmore, a rookie defenseman of all people, upstaged Jagr's two-goal comeback with an overtime goal to put the Flyers on the series board, the two teams could not have been prepared for what followed in Game 4. John LeClair notched a power-play goal in the third period to force overtime in a game that began at 7:30 ET Thursday night. With the game tied at 1, the two teams battled into the wee hours of Friday morning as the extra periods came and went. One. Two. Three. Even Four. Players were exhausted, they were running out of dry equipment, they ate pizza and drank anything they could find to keep their energy going – ahhh, playoff hockey. The hockey got uglier in the fifth overtime with players dragging their legs to stay in the game – all factors that made Keith Primeau's move that much more incredible. Primeau carried the puck up the right wing, made a brilliant stop-and-go move on Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis and fired a hard wrist shot past Tugnutt at 12:01 to give the Flyers the win. It was the third-longest game in NHL history, the longest in 64 years and equaled 2½games. The victory tied the series at 2 and deadened Pittsburgh, which went on to lose the next two games, keeping their winless playoff streak vs. the Flyers intact. The MVP Primeau and yes, Delmore. Primeau turned things around for himself with his historic 5OT goal. He had been demoted from the Flyers' top line two games earlier because he wasn't effective when the Flyers needed him most. Delmore came out of nowhere. During the regular season, he totaled seven points (2-5-7) in 27 games. From his defeseman's position, he scored five goals in the Penguins series, including a hat trick that quickly took the Pens out of Game 5. Those five goals matched the series total of another player – Jaromir Jagr. Joy Russo is a staff editor for ESPN.com Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories