It was, coach Michel Therrien said, a mistake that led to Sidney Crosby being on the ice in the waning seconds of the Penguins' 4-2 loss in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final at Philadelphia Thursday night.

Not by Therrien for sending him out, but by the referees for passing along faulty information that prompted Therrien to deploy Crosby even after the Flyers had scored an empty-net goal.

Therrien said yesterday that, in the wake of a skirmish between Penguins winger Ryan Malone and Philadelphia defenseman Derian Hatcher at 19:37 of the third period, the officials told him the Penguins were going to have a 5-on-3 power play.

Add an extra skater who would replace goalie Marc-Andre Fleury to a two-man advantage, Therrien said, and he believed the Penguins had an outside chance to force overtime, so Crosby got the call.

"On a five-on-three, you pull your goalie with 30 [sic] seconds left, and you could have a chance to go 6-on-3," he said. "And we're still feeling that, with a good rush, in 10 seconds we could have scored a goal, and you're still hoping.

"When all the players were on the ice [for the resumption of play, a ref] came to the bench and told us [the Flyers] don't have two minors. They've got one minor. All the players were [on the ice] already. So that was a bad communication from the referee to the bench. They changed their mind."

Twelve seconds after the game resumed, Crosby scuffled with Flyers center Mike Richards, and both were assessed minors for slashing and roughing. During a news conference yesterday, Richards explained their run-in this way, according to a transcript provided by the NHL:

"I was just trying to go through with the puck. I think that he was thinking I was trying to slash his ankles, but, whatever [laughing]. ... I don't think you can frustrate Sid too much.

"He's such a skilled player, and he's so used to getting picked on, I guess, [by] people going after him, physically and verbally.

"So you're not going to frustrate him too much."

Therrien plugged Max Talbot, who usually centers the fourth line, onto left wing with Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy for the third period of Game 4, and was rewarded with two goals by Staal.

That kind of personnel-juggling is a staple of Therrien's coaching -- "He always likes to mix it up, especially when we're behind," Staal said -- but he said he doesn't plan to use the Talbot-Staal-Kennedy line from the start of Game 5 because it would undermine the cornerstone of his coaching philosophy.

"When you're trailing by three goals, you're trying to make a comeback," he said. "That is the No. 1 thing. We take a lot of pride in playing well defensively.

"Obviously, after the first period when you're trailing by three goals, you know the game's not about playing a great checking game. You've got to go to Plan B and try to open up the game and try to get some offense from different lines.

"We're going to come back with the same recipe that we had success so far. That means we're going to try to rotate four lines and try to get the lead early to get the pressure on them and concentrate on the way we're supposed to play.

"That's not something that I'm planning to do right from the start with Staal and Kennedy, because I like Maxime, first of all, as a centerman. And I like to rotate four lines for the majority of the game. But we're in position that we've got to go with Plan B pretty quick."

Crosby, all of 20 years old, has been the subject of a museum-style exhibit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in conjunction with the world championship tournament games that have been played there.

Among the items on display: A battered dryer from the basement of his parents' home that Crosby shot pucks at when he was a child and a Montreal Canadiens bottle he used as an infant. Crosby's family contributed many of the items, including photographs, used in the exhibit, as did the teams and organizations with which Crosby has been affiliated.

Therrien gave the Penguins yesterday off, just as he did the first day between Games 4 and 5 of the second round. ... Crosby, on one of the main advantages of staying on the move: "When we're skating, we're a lot harder to hit."