The Pittsburgh Penguins will play the Philadelphia Flyers in the Eastern Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n
The Flyers (43-27-12) clinched a playoff berth and third place in the Metropolitan Division with a 3-2 shootout victory against the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Penguins (41-24-16) clinched a playoff berth and second place in the division April 9 and will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-7 series.<\/p>\n
\u201cCouldn’t have drawn it up any better, Battle of Pennsylvania, and it’s going to be a good one,\u201d Flyers forward Owen Tippett said. \u201cWe’re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first time since the 2021-22 season the Penguins have made the playoffs. The Flyers qualified for the first time since 2019-20.<\/p>\n
The Penguins are led by center Sidney Crosby<\/a>, who has 74 points (29 goals, 45 assists). Forward Anthony Mantha<\/a>\u00a0leads the Penguins with 32 goals, followed by Crosby and forward Bryan Rust<\/a>\u00a0with 29 each. Defenseman Erik Karlsson<\/a>\u00a0is second in points with 66 (15 goals, 51 assists), one more than Rust.<\/p>\n Goalie Arturs Silovs<\/a> is 19-11-8 with a 3.04 goals-against average, .889 save percentage and two shutouts. Stuart Skinner<\/a>, acquired in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers on\u00a0Dec. 12, is 12-9-5 with a 2.91 GAA and .888 save percentage. He helped the Oilers reach the Stanley Cup Final each of the past two seasons.<\/p>\n \u201cI won a couple of cups with Crosby, (Evgeni) Malkin, (Kris) Letang (in 2016 and 2017). These guys, they don’t die,\u201d said Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet, a former Pittsburgh assistant. \u201cThese guys are just warriors. We’re going to have our hands full, and we have to have some game-planning here this week. But those guys don’t die. It’s going to be a tough series, and we’re going to have to go after those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n The Flyers were led by forward\u00a0Travis Konecny<\/a> (68 points; 27 goals, 41 assists) and center Trevor Zegras<\/a> (67 points; 26 goals, 41 assists). Their points leader among defensemen was Travis Sanheim<\/a>\u00a0with 37 (11 goals, 26 assists).<\/p>\n Goalie Dan Vladar<\/a> was 29-14-7 with a 2.42 GAA and .906 save percentage. Samuel Ersson<\/a> was 14-11-5 with a 3.12 GAA and .870 save percentage.<\/p>\n The Flyers were 2-2-0 this season against the Penguins, who were 2-0-2. Pittsburgh outscored Philadelphia 16-9.<\/p>\n