| The Philadelphia Flyers visit the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final on Friday night. The best-of-seven series between Atlantic-division rivals is expected to be a long, heated battle and has been dubbed ‘The Battle of Pennsylvania.’
Pittsburgh is coming off a 4-1 win over the New York Rangers in their East semifinal, while Philadelphia beat the Montreal Canadiens, the No. 1 seed in the conference, 4-1 in the other East semifinal.
The Flyers have been perfect against Pittsburgh in the postseason, going 3-0 in the three series the teams have played. They last met in 2000 Eastern Conference semifinals, won 4-2 by Philadelphia.
Philadelphia won the season series 5-3, including a 2-0 home-ice shutout the last time the teams squared off on April 6.
There is a significant over trend, as six of the past seven meetings overall, five of the past six meetings in Pittsburgh, and five of Philadelphia’s past six, have all gone over the total.
Philadelphia is 5-1 in its past six, but Pittsburgh is 8-1 in its past nine at home against Philadelphia.
The game can be seen on VERSUS and CBC.
Betting Line: The Penguins are a -200 favorite at BetUS and the over/under total is 5½.
Betting Consensus: About 66 per cent of wagers placed on this game are on Pittsburgh, according to public betting information.
Pick: Pittsburgh. |
