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The Philadelphia Flyers are one game away from a first round sweep.
The Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 on Wednesday night at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series. The victory was the Flyers first home postseason win in ten years and gives them a three games to none series strange-hold.
It was a game defined by a crackling energy from the home crowd’s anticipation of their first home playoff game since 2018.
“The crowd was really loud tonight,” Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said, after the game. “It’s nice to see that building rocking like that. It has been a while.”
Scrums Boil Over
It was also a game punctuated by a chaotic second period that saw both team’s penalty boxes filled. Following a post-whistle scrum that saw Penguins wing Bryan Rust tackle Travis Konecny to the ice and multiple players engage squaring off.
By the end of the melee, the Flyers and Penguins had a combined 11 players in the box (six for Pittsburgh, five for Philadelphia).
As it turned out, the emotions seemed to fuel the Flyers, who would go on to score three goals in the period to wrest control of the game from the Penguins.
“There were a ton of scrums throughout the games, in the last three games,” Konecny said. “That one kind of got escalated there, out of hand. It ended up working out in our favor, we got some momentum out of it.”
Up until that point, Pittsburgh had a tenuous hold on the game, after they got their first lead of the series in the opening period.
Big Second Period
After for going 0 for 7 in the first two games, Pittsburgh was finally able to score a power-play to take a 1-0 lead. Following a Sean Couturier tripping penalty in the offensive zone on Sam Girard, the Penguins went on the attack. After forward Luke Glendening broke his stick, Sidney Crosby was able to find Rust near the right post. Rust passed it across the slot to Evgeni Malkin who slammed the puck past Dan Vladar at the left post.
However, the Flyers turned the game in the second period. Following the penalty parade, the Flyers got their own power-play goal. Trevor Zegras worked along the left circle, got a quick turnaround pass from defenseman Jamie Drysdale (two assists). From that spot, he rifled home a one timer past goalie Stuart Skinner to tie the game at 1-1.
With Flyers players crammed into the penalty box, Zegras skated by and pounded the glass celebrating the first playoff goal of his career.
“There was a lot of them in there, and I figured they were going to be jumping around,” Zegras said. “So I thought if I scored, I was going right to them, for sure.”
Porter Martone picked up the other assist to continue his point-per-game pace in the playoffs.
Subsequently, Philadelphia took the lead when Rasmus Ristolainen got a great cross from Noah Juulsen at the left circle. He settled the puck and fired a wrist shot through Skinner’s pads at 9:06. For the Penguins’ goalie, it was a goal he surely wanted back.
A little over a minute later, another defenseman would get on the score sheet. Veteran Nick Seeler fired a high wrist shot that got through traffic in front and past Skinner’s glove.
Closing The Game, Concern For Vladar
In the third period, Pittsburgh was forced to attack a full 200 feet for most of the final 20 minutes. They got within a goal when Erik Karlsson fired a shot that got through traffic and fluttered past Vladar to make it 3-2.
However, the Flyers got a critical penalty when Anthony Mantha was called for delay of game (clearing puck out of play). Following some probing passing between Zegras and Drysdale, the former got the puck down low to center Noah Cates.
Cates went from his forehand to backhand, then back to his forehand in quick succession and beat Skinner glove side to make it 4-2.
Winger Owen Tippett would salt away the game with an empty net goal.
However, as loud and giddy as the arena was with the Flyers, there is concern for goalie Dan Vladar. He had a rock solid performance, but in a third period sequence, Rust went through the crease and appeared to knock into Vladar’s right arm. His blocker came off and he immediately skated to the corner holding his arm. He would go on to finish the game, but his status will be monitored over the next few days.
The Good
- Playoff Rasmus Ristolainen has been a sight to behold. His partnership with Travis Sanheim as the Flyers shutdown pairing has fueled the team’s defensive performance. Beyond the goal he scored, there were a number of big moments, including smart exit passes, key shot blocks, and clearing the crease area. All in 24:33 of ice-time. Even though he wasn’t first star, he would’ve been deserving of it.
- Following an underwhelming Game 2 performance, Zegras (1G, 2 points) came roaring back with a big game which helped turned the tide of the game and the Flyers power-play fortunes. However, his night started when he disrupted a Penguins transition in the neutral zone in the first period. It started the most threatening offensive zone shift the Flyers have up until that point of the game.
- The Flyers started turn things around for themselves in the first period when Sean Couturier and Garnet Hathaway’s big hits on Penguins defensemen Sam Girard and Kris Letang. Beyond that, Couturier was a beast in this game with two assists, a plus two, two hits, and dominance in the face-off circle winning six of eight draws (75 percent).
- Don’t think we had a two assist game for Noah Juulsen on the playoff bingo card. For the second straight game, the defenseman drew in for the injured Emil Andrae (upper body, day-to-day) and had a strong performance, especially in helping the Flyers penalty killing unit.
- As stated earlier, the Flyers power-play (two for four) had a good performance in helping the Flyers take advantage of key moments of the game (Zegras game-tying goal, Cates’ third period marker).
- You read that stat-sheet correctly: Owen Tippett had 11 (!) hits.
The Bad
- The Flyers seemed a bit jittery to start the game. Possibly a bit of nerves in playing in front of a frenzied crowd that Seeler said was the “craziest” he’s played in front of in his career. Pittsburgh had a good first period in getting cross ice dump-ins. Philadelphia was able to get offensive zone time early, but struggled to sustain it during the opening 20 minutes. They also struggled to get consistent shots on goal during that stretch, including a pair of big whiffs on the same sequence by Martone and Christian Dvorak.
- For the third game in a row, Matvei Michkov struggled. He made some poor puck management and disciplinary decisions (six PIMS). In the first period, he showed a lack of defensive awareness in not shielding the puck near their own blue line. In doing so, it led to an extended offensive zone opportunity for the Penguins. He took an embellishment call in the second period. Later in the game, while defending Vladar following a whistle, he basically tackled a Penguins player after the whistle. The Penguins scored on the ensuing power-play and he didn’t get much ice time for the remainder of the game. His situational awareness needs to improve.
- Philadelphia’s defensive performance wasn’t completely airtight at times and Pittsburgh’s possession numbers saw an uptick in the third period. The Mantha delay of game penalty came at a good time and Cates’ power-play goal gave the Flyers the space they needed.
The Ugly
- Pending what they find today, the possibility of losing Vladar to injury is a potentially dicey situation. Ersson was very good after the Olympics, but it doesn’t paper over a regular season resume where he struggled for most of it. Is he capable of stepping in to help the Flyers close out the series? Yes. But he could be just as capable of struggling in a big moment too.
- During postgame availability, Rust indicated that Konency tried to kick him during the scrum. The Flyers forward was questioned about it and responded: “I just remember I was on the bottom there,” Konecny said. “There’s a ref on top of me and him. I’ll have to look back, but I don’t remember anything too specific.” We’ll see if the league will look at it and whether it might led to a suspension for him.
- Did Gritty commit a crime here? You be the judge 😉 : https://x.com/GrittyNHL/status/2047101220557377591?s=20
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