PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins (0-2) were shutout 3-0 by the Philadelphia Flyers (2-0) on Monday at PPG Paints Arena, putting them in an seemingly insurmountable 2-0 series deficit heading to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4. On the official scoresheet, the Penguins outshot the Flyers, but the more telling statistic was the shots that did not get through. The Penguins had a combined 48 missed or blocked shot attempts. Compare that to the Flyers’ 15. The Penguins also went 0-5 on the power play and allowed a shorthanded goal against.
Just like Game 1, the first period was scoreless, but it had its fair share of excitement. There were 28 hits by the Flyers and 14 by the Penguins. There were four penalties called, three on the Flyers and one on the Penguins. However, what was lacking other than scoring were actual shots on goal. The Penguins only managed to muster two shots on goal and the Flyers only got five. The Penguins did attempt 19 shots in the first frame, but only two got through to Flyers netminder Dan Vladar, none of which came during their combined four minutes of power play time. Meanwhile five of the eight attempted Flyers shots made it through to Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner.
Coach Dan Muse attempted to change the momentum and put the Chinakhov-Novak-Malkin line back together, but it their very first shift together they got pinned in their defensive zone and all five players were on extended shifts over 1:25. The Flyers took advantage of the Penguins’ tired group and cycled the puck down low passing the puck out from below the goal line to Travis Konecny at the bottom of the right faceoff circle. As he was falling down, Konecny wristed a shot towards Skinner. His shot deflected off traffic in front and right to the stick of rookie Porter Martone (2) who was able to tap the puck into a yawning cage to break the scoreless stalemate at 13:39 of the second.
The Penguins got a glorious chance to tie the game with Flyers forward Luke Glendenning off for cross-checking, their fourth power play opportunity of the game, but it was the Flyers who cashed in shorthanded. The Penguins’ power play was completely disjointed and out of sorts. On one of the many Flyers clears, Owen Tippett created a turnover, getting to a Skinner pass from behind the net before any Penguins players could. He then flipped the puck around Tommy Novak back to himself, causing Novak and Kris Letang to run into each other, leading to a two-on-one with Garnet Hathaway (1) with Ben Kindel being the only Penguins player back. Kindel dropped to a knee in an attempt to stop Tippett’s pass to Hathaway in the slot, but it got through clean and Hathaway was able to tap it in to give the Flyers a shorthanded goal and a 2-0 lead at 17:43 of the second.
The Penguins got a fifth power play opportunity with 13:29 left in regulation, but it nearly resulted in another Flyers shorthanded goal. Skinner was able to stop a two-on-none Flyers break to keep the Penguins within two. In addition to nearly scoring shorthanded, the Flyers were also awarded a penalty shot in the third, but Tippett’s attempted shot went wide and the score remained 2-0.
The Flyers did eventually get the only third period goal when Luke Glendening (1) scored into an empty net to seal the Flyers’ victory 3-0. The Penguins are now in the unenviable position of losing both home games and heading to Philadelphia down 2-0 in the series.
The Penguins’ offense has shown little-to-no signs of life and unless drastic adjustments are made to their offensive approach and strategy, the Penguins may find themselves out of the playoffs before the weekend is over.
Notes
The Penguins’ forward lines, defensive pairings, and starting goaltender all remained the same as Game 1 to start Game 2, but head coach Dan Muse attempted to switch things up about midway through the game, swapping Chinakhov and Rakell between the top two lines.
The Penguins went 0-5 on the power play, but killed all five Flyers power play attempts.
Skinner made 25 saves in defeat, while Vladar made 23 saves to earn the shutout.
Final hit totals favored the Flyers 48-32.
The faceoff winning percentages favored the Flyers 55% to 45%.
The final blocked shots numbers favored the Flyers 23-8.
Tags: 2026 stanley cup playoffs Dan Vladar Evgeni Malkin Philadelphia flyers Pittsburgh Penguins porter martone Sidney Crosby Vince Comunale
Categorized:2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs Penguins Postgame