{"id":169985,"date":"2026-04-19T07:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169985\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:30:17","slug":"penguins-out-physicalled-outshot-outplayed-drop-game-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169985\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins Out-Physicalled, Outshot, Outplayed, Drop Game 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> (0-1) fell to the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> (1-0) 3-2 at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday night, dropping the first game of the series. The Flyers outhit, outshot, and out chanced the Penguins in the series lid lifter and will look to take a 2-0 series lead back to Philadelphia when the two teams clash again in Game 2 on Monday night. The Penguins\u2019 17 shots on goal were the third-fewest in a home playoff game in franchise history. <\/p>\n

Although the Flyers had 11 players making their NHL playoff<\/a> debut and the Penguins had four, the cross-state hate was prevalent in the first period. While there were no goals scored, there were a combined 30 hits, 20 by the Flyers. The Flyers also outshot the Penguins 9-5 in the frame. Of course, there were also about a dozen after-the-whistle scrums. By the time the game was finished, the teams combined for a total of 81 hits. <\/p>\n

Both teams had a chance on the power play in the first, but neither could convert. The Flyers thought they scored on their power play opportunity, but Flyers forward Christian Dvorak ran into Penguins netminder Stuart Skinner<\/a>, making no attempt to avoid contact with him. While the puck did enter the net, the goal was immediately disallowed by the officials on the ice and the Flyers did not challenge. <\/p>\n

Although Skinner turned aside three different Flyers breakaways and a two-on-one, all before the ten-minute mark of the second, it would still be the Flyers breaking the scoreless stalemate in the second period. With the Penguins\u2019 entire five-man unit stuck on the ice for over a minute, the Flyers cycled with the puck, grinding down the weary group. Eventually, the puck ended up on the stick of Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale<\/a> (1) who wristed the puck from the bottom of the right circle, through traffic in front and then through the five-hole of Skinner at 9:19 of the second. <\/p>\n

The Penguins got their first real sustained pressure of the second period late in the frame and took full advantage of their time in the Flyers\u2019 zone. The Penguins completed a full line change while in the Flyers\u2019 zone and got their second line on the ice. Rickard Rakell<\/a> gathered the puck shortly after he got on the ice and wristed a shot on Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar<\/a>. The resulting rebound ended up in the right circle where Tommy Novak<\/a> was able to chip the puck back to the stick of Evgeni Malkin<\/a>. Malkin (1) wasted no time and wristed the puck from the right faceoff dot through the five-hole of Vladar at 15:51 of the second to tie the game at one. <\/p>\n

With exactly ten minutes in regulation, the Flyers took the lead again. Defenseman Travis Sanheim<\/a> (1) grabbed the puck near the blue line and danced towards the Penguins\u2019 net. He managed to elude the Penguins defenders and wrist the puck past Skinner\u2019s glove to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead. It would be Skinner\u2019s glove hand that the Flyers would test and beat for their third goal as well. This time it was Porter Martone<\/a> (1) wiring a wrist shot past Skinner\u2019s glove at 17:23 of the third to put the Flyers ahead for good. <\/p>\n

Bryan Rust<\/a> (1) did pull the Penguins within one with 1:01 left in regulation when a deflected Malkin shot came right to him in the slot and he wristed it past Vladar, but that was as close as the Penguins would get. <\/p>\n

Game 2 is set for Monday night at 7pm at PPG Paints Arena. Statistical history is not on the Penguins\u2019 side. Per the NHL<\/a>, Game 1 winners take a playoff series 68% of the time. However, the Penguins have faced this scenario many times in their history, including losing the first game of all four series en route to their first Stanley Cup championship in 1991. <\/p>\n

Notes<\/p>\n

With a healthy lineup to start the playoffs, the Penguins\u2019 lines took on a slightly different look.<\/p>\n

Forwards<\/p>\n

Egor Chinakhov -Sidney Crosby \u2013 Bryan Rust<\/p>\n

Tommy Novak \u2013 Rickard Rakell \u2013 Evgeni Malkin<\/p>\n

Elmer Soderblom \u2013 Ben Kindel \u2013 Anthony Mantha<\/p>\n

Connor Dewar \u2013 Blake Lizotte \u2013 Noel Acciari<\/p>\n

Defensemen<\/p>\n

Parker Wotherspoon \u2013 Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n

Sam Girard \u2013 Kris Letang<\/p>\n

Ryan Shea \u2013 Connor Clifton<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: 2026 stanley cup playoffs<\/a> Evgeni Malkin<\/a> Philadelphia flyers<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> Sidney Crosby<\/a> stuart skinner<\/a> Vince Comunale<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized:2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs<\/a> Penguins Postgame<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins (0-1) fell to the Philadelphia Flyers (1-0) 3-2 at PPG Paints Arena on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[76154,15355,4845,73,75,74,1067,8664,32556,66166],"class_list":{"0":"post-169985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-evgeni-malkin","10":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","15":"tag-sidney-crosby","16":"tag-stuart-skinner","17":"tag-vince-comunale"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}