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Thanks to goalie Dan Vladar’s masterful performance and an unbelievable play sequence by Owen Tippett, the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 on Monday night at the PPG Paints Arena.
As a result, the win gives the Flyers a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series. The series resumes on Wednesday in Philadelphia for the first home playoff in Philadelphia since 2018.
Vladar had to stave off a number of Penguins chances, especially in the third period as Pittsburgh amassed a 13-6 shot advantage. He made 27 saves to earn his first shut-out in a Flyers uniform.
It was the team’s first clean sheet of the entire season, keeping Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and the rest of the Penguins offense off the board, despite a substantial puck possession advantage.
Porter Martone, Garnet Hathaway, and Luke Glendening scored for the Flyers. Hathaway also assisted on Glendening’s empty netter to finish with a two point night.
It was a game where the Flyers can come away happy with the result, but knowing full well that the series is far from over.
Playing “Rope-A-Dope”
The game had the feeling of a desperate boxer trying to hit an elusive opponent, but never quite getting close enough. Pittsburgh got three power-play chances in the first period, yet somehow came away with only two shots on goal.
In the second period, Pittsburgh intensified their forechecking shortly before the midway point. As a result, they began to pin the Flyers in their end. To their credit, Philadelphia did a good job of limiting the middle of the ice at that point of the game. But it was clear that they were chipping pucks out but no pursuing nearly enough.
However, just as they’ve done throughout the later portion of the season, Philadelphia’s fourth line of Sean Couturier, Luke Glendening, and Garnet Hathway put together an excellent offensive zone shift to relieve that pressure.
Subsequently, the line of Christian Dvorak, Porter Martone, and Travis Konency went to work to get the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
Dvorak would get a hold of the puck from behind the net and found Konency for a quick one-timer shot. The puck deflected off Pens defenseman Ryan Shea, but went straight to a net crashing Martone. The 19 year old beat Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner on a backhander for his second goal of the playoffs at 13:37 of the second period.
Tipping The Game In Their Favor
However, the play of the game would come late in the second period, as the Flyers were on the penalty-kill after Glendening’s cross-checking penalty.
Winger Owen Tippett displayed unbelievable speed, hands, and footwork in disrupting the Penguins power-play in their own end of the ice. As he closed on the puck along the boards, he shouldered off Tomas Novak. Following that, he shrugged off defender Kris Letang, faked a shot that Skinner bit on, then slid the puck across to Garnet Hathaway to put the Flyers up 2-0 at 17:43 of the second period.
It was a remarkable play that gave the Flyers the breathing room they needed. After that, they had to hold off a desperate Penguins attack in the third period before Glendening finished the game off with an empty net goal.
The Good
- As stated, the penalty killing units were put to the test in the first period, dealing with three Pittsburgh opportunities. One of the ways that they were able to deal with one of the best power-plays in the NHL was to become more aggressive and disruptive as Tocchet pointed out in his postgame comments. As a result, they are now seven for seven in the series so far.
- Defenseman Cam York had one of his best games as a Flyer. He made several critical clears to relieve pressure, but also two key shot blocks on the PK. The first was off a Sidney Crosby one-timer off his arm. The other was a stick check on an Evgeni Malkin chance at the left post. More subtly, he moved the puck up the boards during a Penguins line change, catching them with too many men on the ice, which led to a Flyers power-play.
- What a game for Hathaway. Two point night, seven hits, and a plus-two rating. Such a rewarding moment for a player who had one goal in 66 games and was a frequent healthy scratch.
- For the second game in a row, Couturier led the way in shutting down Crosby offensively, especially at the face-off dot (72 percent vs 42 percent for the eventual Hall of Famer)
- Noah Cates remains an under-the radar ace for the Flyers. Even with a shift in his line during the second period (Tyson Foerster in place of Denver Barkey), he was excellent in anticipating with active stick work and won seven of 12 faceoffs.
- Tippett remained a physical force with seven hits to lead the team.
The Bad
- Matvei Michkov is trying to find his footing in his first NHL playoff appearances. While there’s times when he does a good job controlling the puck in the offensive zone, his defensive miscues in a tight game puts the Flyers in danger of getting stuck in their own end. He also made a mistake in not getting puck deep enough on a neutral zone clear and Flyers were only able to rotate three of five players.
- It was a night to forget for Denver Barkey as well, who was rotated off the Cates line and finished with 8:53 of icetime. Barkey was excellent in Game One but Game Two was a struggle. He hardly played in the third period.
- Trevor Zegras was held pointless and found his ice time limited during the third period as well. As good as he was in Game One, he was less effective on Monday.
- The Flyers had 19 giveaways to the Penguins’ 13. The third period was rough in that department.
- As good as the Flyers were at keeping the Penguins at bay, they have to guard against giving them too many chances on the power- lay. Several penalties they took were avoidable (like Konecny’s interference call on Crosby).
The Ugly
- The possession numbers in the third period were really bad. Yes, Pittsburgh was chasing the game, but a 23 percent Corsi For is unacceptable and put way too much pressure on Vladar to preserve the game.
- The refereeing work by Garrett Rank’s crew in this one left a lot to be desired. Ristolainen getting the only penalty call in his first period scuffle with Crosby was laughable. A missed high sticking call by Clifton on Tippett in the first period. Add to it, the end of the game “message-sending” with Anthony Mantha delivering two gloved uppercuts to Tippett.
- The power-play was 0 for 4. Movement looked decent on one of them and that was about it.
