Max Talbot scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Pittsburgh Penguins took a two-game lead in the Eastern Conference finals by beating the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 Sunday. Sidney Crosby and Marian Hossa also scored and Jordan Staal added an empty-net goal in the final minute as Pittsburgh came back to win after twice squandering one-goal leads. Pittsburgh won the first two games at home for the third consecutive series, with Game 3 set for Tuesday in Philadelphia. The Flyers won each of their first two playoff rounds after losing Game 1, but this is the first time they also lost Game 2 on the road. The Penguins' game-winner came from its fourth line, and by a player who had missed the previous three games with a broken right foot. Gary Roberts, who turns 42 later this month, carried the puck behind the net, and defenseman Derian Hatcher went with him, leaving Talbot - a sometimes overlooked fourth-line forward on a team renowned for its - open in front of the net. Roberts put a backhander onto his stick for Talbot's second playoff goal, at 8:51 of the third. Fitting that a player known as Mad Max scored the game winner in a peculiar game in which an apparent Pittsburgh goal didn't count and the Flyers scored short-handed and on the power play but couldn't score at even strength. And Crosby, one of the NHL's biggest stars, scored only his third power-play goal in 5? months. Philadelphia, desperately trying to avoid going down two games against a team with Pittsburgh's speed and talent, tied it at 2 when Mike Richards intercepted Evgeni Malkin's risky cross-ice pass on a power, got loose on a breakaway and beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrist shot with 24 seconds remaining in the second period. Despite allowing the goal, Fleury played another strong game by making 30 saves. At the time, the Penguins were pressing for a two-goal lead after Hossa's power-play goal at 13:43 of the second made it 2-1. Hossa scored nine seconds into Hatcher's interference penalty on Malkin. Hatcher also was off, for crosschecking, on Richards' goal - Flyers' second short-handed goal in 14 playoff games and the first allowed by Pittsburgh in 11 games. Finland beats US Mikko Koivu scored with less than four minutes remaining to give Finland a 3-2 come-from-behind win Sunday over the United States at the ice hockey World Championship that was marred by a post-game brawl in Halifax. After Koivu scored with 3:50 left, the United States' Adam Burish was ejected for butt-ending a Finland player. As time expired, US forward Dustin Brown checked a Finnish defenseman into the boards with a hit to the head, touching off a melee that featured a fight between David Backes of the United States and Amsso Salmela of Finland. Earlier Sunday, in Quebec City, Andres Ambuhl and Sandy Jeannin scored early and Switzerland went on to beat Denmark 7-2, earning Sweden a place in the quarterfinals. Latvia won for only the second time in five games, beating Norway 4-1 to improve its chances of claiming the last remaining quarterfinal berth, and Sweden beat the Czech Republic 5-3 to avoid a quarterfinal showdown against a top seed.
