PHILADELPHIA — Trevor Zegras, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler scored three second-period goals in six minutes to help the Philadelphia Flyers to a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 3 of the first round on Wednesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The Flyers, playing their first playoff game in front of fans since 2018, now have a 3-0 stranglehold on the series, with a chance to close it out on Saturday night in Philadelphia.
Evgeni Malkin’s power-play goal at 4:18 of the first period gave the Penguins the early lead. That was the only goal of the opening frame.
After Penguins forward Bryan Rust got a little overly aggressive after a whistle with Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny — resulting in 11 minor penalties at 4:33 of the second period, and, ultimately, a Flyers power play — Trevor Zegras tied the score with a one-timer on a feed from Jamie Drysdale at 5:18. It was the Flyers’ first power-play goal of the series.
Then, the floodgates opened. Rasmus Ristolainen’s wrister through Stuart Skinner’s five-hole on a stoppable shot gave the Flyers a lead they would not relinquish at 9:06 of the second, while Nick Seeler’s floater from the point through traffic at 11:18 pushed the advantage to 3-1, where it stood after two periods.
The Penguins threatened a comeback when defenseman Erik Karlsson scored at 9:39 of the third period, but the Flyers’ Noah Cates netted an insurance goal to make the score 4-2 a little less than three minutes later. Owen Tippett added an empty netter with 1:12 remaining to push the final score to 5-2.
Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar made 29 saves to record the win, while Noah Juulsen, Jamie Drysdale and Sean Couturier had two assists apiece.
Here’s what we saw in Game 3:
Flyers fourth line plays key role … again
The Flyers looked a bit tentative to start the game, perhaps to be expected with so many young players experiencing playoff hockey in South Philadelphia for the first time. Then, midway through the first, Couturier ran Kris Letang, and Garnet Hathaway bodied Sam Girard, which seemed to settle the team down.
In the second, it was Philadelphia’s fourth line controlling play in the offensive zone that led to Ristolainen’s game-winner, while Luke Glendening provided a screen on Seeler’s point shot a couple of minutes later. That Seeler goal began with Hathaway taking on two Penguins in the corner and freeing up the puck for Couturier to take control and push it to the point to Juulsen, who dished it to Seeler on the other side.
“I think at the eight-minute mark we were kind of … I don’t know if we were nervous, but all of a sudden the Coots line, we had a bunch of hits,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said postgame. “I think it got the crowd going and relaxed us a little bit. I don’t want us running around, but I don’t think we ran around. I thought these were smart hits.”
Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby was whistled for an embellishment penalty for the first time in his NHL career. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Crosby called for embellishment
A couple of years back, Crosby, after being accused of diving during a game, commented that he’s never been given an embellishment penalty in his career. That was true until Game 3.
At 18:47 of the first period, as Crosby was about to line up for a faceoff, Hathaway flung his stick behind his back and caught Crosby on the face. Crosby crumbled to the ice.
Hathaway was immediately given a penalty for high-sticking. After the referees got together to discuss what had happened, and with the crowd in a frenzy, Crosby was ordered to the penalty box.
The Penguins led at the time, 1-0. Neither team scored in the resulting four-on-four, but that was the moment when the tide started to shift in Philadelphia’s favor.
After the game, the Penguins were furious with the call.
“We don’t have a single embellishment all year,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “Sidney Crosby doesn’t have an embellishment in 21 seasons. Stick’s in his face. They take both of ’em. I disagree on that strongly. Not one, not one for our team all season. So we didn’t come into this series to start now. Our guys have done a good job with that. And Sid doesn’t embellish.”
Frightening moment for Vladar
Vladar again outplayed Skinner and has now stopped 72 of 76 Penguins shots in the series for a .947 save percentage. There was a frightening moment for him in the third, though, when Rust, cutting to the net, made contact with him in the crease.
Vladar was attended to by trainer Tommy Alva with 13:19 to go in regulation, favoring his right arm and squeezing his right hand. He stayed in the game, though, and appeared to be fine the rest of the way.
“He’s banged up; we’ll see how he is tomorrow,” Tocchet said. “I don’t know at this moment how bad it is.”
Flyers’ power play comes through
The Flyers didn’t win the special teams battle — each team scored twice — but the Flyers getting a pair on the power play is notable considering how awful it was during the season, finishing last in the league. Zegras scored a few from that spot in the faceoff circle during the regular season, and his goal set off a crowd that was waiting to explode.
In the third, Cates, who had a breakaway moments earlier that was stopped by Skinner’s glove, added some insurance by cutting to the net with the puck down low, and making it 4-2. Cates’ goal came about three minutes after Karlsson’s power-play score had trimmed the Flyers’ lead to one.
Tocchet will likely be displeased with the three minor penalties in the third, while giving the Penguins five power-play opportunities in the game. But the Flyers survived, because the power play responded to Pittsburgh’s, going 2-for-3 overall.
Penguins’ well runs dry
We can evaluate this series in so many ways, and the chaos of Game 3 was certainly noteworthy. But the bottom line is that the Penguins, the third-highest scoring team in the NHL during the regular season, have four goals in three games during this series. One came at even strength, two came on the power play and one came with the goaltender pulled in Game 1.
That’s it.
Muse made several changes to his lines in Game 3, leaving Crosby on a line with Rickard Rakell and Rust. He deployed a new-look line with Malkin, Anthony Mantha and Tommy Novak. He also tried rookie Ben Kindel with Egor Chinakhov and Justin Brazeau, who went back into the lineup after being a scratch in the first two games.
All of it resulted in a big nothing-burger as the Penguins continued to be stifled by Philadelphia’s suffocating defense, which has dominated play in the neutral zone and in the slot all series.
The Penguins scored all season, but suddenly, they can’t. As a result, they’re on the brink of elimination. Yes, Skinner allowed two shaky goals, and the Penguins made plenty of poor decisions, but if they can’t score, they can’t win.