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The Philadelphia Flyers entered Game Six against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night, understanding what was at stake.
Twice they had the chance to put away their cross-state rivals, twice they came away unsuccessful.
So they knew this wasn’t going to be easy. It ended up being what Flyers legendary announcer Gene Hart once called “exquisite torture.”
It took surviving a very difficult third period and overtime. The Penguins took command of the game, possessing the puck and beating the Flyers in seemingly every puck battle.
It took every bit of goalie Dan Vladar’s amazing 42-save performance in net to deny Pittsburgh the winning goal.
But they found a way, as defenseman Cam York’s point shot found it’s way past Arturs Silovs at 17:30 of overtime, sending the Xfinity Mobile Arena into a joyous eruption.
The final score: Flyers 1, Penguins 0. The victory delivered the home team its first Stanley Cup Playoff series win since the 2020 season.
“It’s great,” winger Travis Konency said postgame. “This group of guys have just been working so over the past month. We earned that, you know? We played hard. Didn’t quit on each other over the last stretch of games. It felt great to get it done.”
“For me, (Pittsburgh) has had their fair share of beating me, so against them, it felt extra good.”
Under Siege
As the game carried from the third period into the first overtime game of the series, the Penguins applied pressure on their younger opponents.
Years of experience saw them probe the Flyers defense, bending them repeatedly in front of Vladar. They amassed a 13-5 shot advantage in the third and at one point overtime, they were up 9-2 on Philadelphia.
“Got to give them credit,” Flyers captain Sean Couturier said. “That’s an experienced team over there, shooting a lot of pucks from everywhere and trying to create chaos in the front of the net.”
And they had a few chances, most notably Tomas Novak having the puck in tight, but passing up the shot to make a pass instead.
Conversely, the Flyers seemingly couldn’t connect on two passes without the puck fluttering off the stick blades from the second period onward.
But they wouldn’t break. They just needed an opening to relieve goalie Dan Vladar, who turned away every scoring chance the Penguins flung his way.
“I thought we defended well and we had Vladdy step up when we needed him,” Couturier said.
The Break They Needed
Finally, with 2:55 remaining in the first overtime game of the series, they finally got one.
Wingers Porter Martone and Owen Tippett charged out of their own zone, with the 19 year carrying the puck with authority. He connected on a pass down low to Tippett that forced Silovs to cover.
Following a Penguins icing, Noah Cates won an offensive zone draw and the puck went to York. The defenseman worked a quick give and go with Matvei Michkov, who backhanded a pass back to him. He launched a wrist shot through a screen set up by Cates that eluded Silovs.
The Xfinity Mobile Arena sell out crowd exploded at the wild, improbable finish. York charged in celebration to the Flyers zone and threw his stick into the crowd as his teammates mobbed him.
“It was a great play by Mich on the blue line there,” York said. “I got it, looked up and Catesy was in front. The way the game was going, we knew it was going to be a greasy one. Just wanted to get it to the net and it found a hole.”
Vladar’s Historic Heroics
After the game, winger Travis Konecny spoke to the media and discussed Vladar’s heroics in net.
Sitting next Garrett Wilson on the bus in Pittsburgh following their Game 5 loss, he told the veteran winger “I think Vladdy’s going to steal one for us at home.”
Put this one in the Museum of Grand Larceny.
Two key exhibits? A mission-critical save on Bryan Rust with just under four minutes left in the third period, along with a big stop on Mantha in overtime.
It was Vladar’s second postseason shutout. Even more remarkably, he made the fourth-most saves in a series-clinching shutout win over the past 70 years, per NHL Stats.
The only goaltenders with more are Patrick Roy (with 63 saves in Game 4 of 1996 Stanley Cup Finals), Andrei Vasilevskiy (49 in Game 4 of 2022 Round 2) and Carey Price (43 in Game 6 of 2015 Round 1). All Vezina Trophy winners, so he’s in august company.
Vladar is well known for his leadership and encouraging his teammates in pivotal moments.
“For me, it was just belief. I was just trying to give the guys a chance,” Vladar said I believed that they were going to capitalize and I was glad they did.”
Carolina The Next Test
The Flyers punched their ticket to the second round of the playoffs, where the formidable Carolina Hurricanes await. Rod Brind’Amour’s team led the Eastern Conference with 116 points in the regular season.
In the first round, the handily dispatched the Ottawa Senators in a four-game sweep. They do have some injury concerns with winger Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman Andrei Nikishin.
The Flyers clinched their playoff berth against them in Game 81, but several key players sat in that one and the Canes still took them to a shootout.
“We’ll probably have a 0.2 percent chance (against them),” Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet jokingly quipped.
In short, Philadelphia will be hard pressed to advance beyond the next series, but the closeness of the Flyers lineup is something Tocchet spoke to last night.
It’s why they can’t be taken for granted.
“This is a close group,” Tocchet said This is a pack of guys that go out for dinner and stuff, and I think that helps,.”
“It gets tight out there, right? They come back, the Penguins, they played a great game tonight. We hung in there. I’ve got to give them a lot of credit, but I think the closeness might have won us the series.”
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