{"id":610800,"date":"2026-04-28T07:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610800\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:14:17","slug":"flyers-again-cant-close-out-penguins-come-home-for-massive-game-6-nbc-sports-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/610800\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers again can\u2019t close out Penguins, come home for massive Game 6 \u2013 NBC Sports Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014 So much for the Flyers’ commanding lead.<\/p>\n

They have themselves a series.<\/p>\n

The Flyers suffered a 3-2 loss Monday night to the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena in Game 5 of this best-of-seven first-round playoff matchup.<\/p>\n

Rick Tocchet’s club now heads home with its series advantage whittled down to 3-2. The Flyers knew eliminating a team like Pittsburgh was going to be a challenge.<\/p>\n

“There’s no way that group’s going to go away,” Tocchet said before the game. “No chance.”<\/p>\n

The Flyers showed some resolve, but they couldn’t overcome multiple deficits. They erased a 2-0 hole in the second period on goals from Alex Bump and Travis Sanheim.<\/p>\n

Kris Letang, though, responded to regain the Penguins their lead before intermission. Pittsburgh closed the door in the third period.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to give them credit, they’re defending really hard,” Tocchet said. “We’ve got to come up with some stuff here. You’ve got to fake some shots, deception; I think we’re just burying our head and shooting stuff into shin pads. You’ve got to have a little more creativity and we’ve got to talk about that.”<\/p>\n

The Penguins are trying to become just the fifth team in NHL history to win a series when down 3-0<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“They’re an experienced group that has been in this situation before,” Cam York said before the game. “They’re not just going to go away easy. I think we wanted them to go away a little bit easy last game and that obviously wasn’t the case. … We’ve got to bring our A-plus game to take these guys out.”<\/p>\n

The Flyers dropped consecutive games for just the second time since Feb. 26. They lost, 4-2, in Game 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Owen Tippett said. “We knew we weren’t going to win every game. Reset and get back at it.”<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dan Vladar converted 18 saves on 21 shots.<\/p>\n

On Letang’s goal, the Flyers’ netminder tried to glove a high shot. The puck ended up ricocheting off the boards and then Vladar’s leg as Pittsburgh took its lead back.<\/p>\n

“It’s an unfortunate bounce, to be honest with you,” Vladar said. “You can always do something better on every single goal \u2014 it doesn’t matter if it’s a bounce off the boards or if it’s a 2-on-0 breakaway, you can always do something a little bit better. They just got that bounce and we didn’t. They were the happier team today.”<\/p>\n

Tocchet considered the goal “fluky.”<\/p>\n

“I think it hit the stanchion, came back out,” the Flyers’ head coach said. “It’s an unfortunate goal. It’s good fortune for them.”<\/p>\n

The Penguins struck just 2:45 minutes into the game. Elmer Soderblom scored from the slot after Anthony Mantha had a textbook forecheck on Rasmus Ristolainen.<\/p>\n

Vladar gave his team a really solid third period, but the Flyers couldn’t rally.<\/p>\n

“Even though [a 3-0 series lead] sounded nice, we knew it wasn’t going to be over,” Vladar said. “They’re a really good team. They are in the playoffs for a reason. For us, just quick bounce back, watch video, learn from today and get better for Wednesday.”<\/p>\n

Arturs Silovs, making his second straight start for Pittsburgh, stopped 18 of the Flyers’ 20 shots.<\/p>\n

“Each guy has got to come in a mindset that they can play their best game,” Tocchet said. “That doesn’t mean scoring goals and assists; it’s what’s your best game that’s going to help the team? A good clear, a good change. You’ve got the puck and there’s room to skate, have the courage to skate and make a play. It’s OK to make a play. Things like that. We have it in us.”<\/p>\n

Silovs denied Porter Martone with under a minute to go.<\/p>\n

The Flyers’ league-worst power play went 0 for 2 and is just 2 for 15 in the series.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOwen Tippett, Dan Vladar and Rick Tocchet shared their thoughts on what went wrong in the Flyers’ Game 5 loss to the Penguins on Monday.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u2022 As expected, Matvei Michkov was a healthy scratch<\/a>. Bump entered the lineup for his first career NHL playoff game.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old said he was “stoked” to play and he looked it. His second-period goal came just 12 seconds after Connor Dewar had the building abuzz. The Penguins’ fourth-line winger took advantage of the Flyers failing to clear the zone and cushioned his team’s lead to 2-0.<\/p>\n

But Bump quickly quieted the crowd with an excellent move to the net.<\/p>\n

“I’ve played in front of a bunch of fans, it doesn’t intimidate me at all,” Bump said. “I love it, actually. I just tried to play my game and do what I do best.”<\/p>\n

The rookie winger was noticeable from the onset. On his first shift, he fired a shot and had a hit.<\/p>\n

Bump did exactly what the Flyers were hoping for in his postseason debut. He’ll definitely always remember PPG Paints Arena. His first goal in both the regular season and playoffs came here.<\/p>\n

“He has really improved from the beginning of the year,” Tocchet said. “As much as he has got the creativity and the shot, he has got a stop-and-start game. Like in piles and stuff, he’s stopping and coming up with loose pucks. That’s what he’s doing for us really well. We’ve got to get some other guys to kind of play that way \u2014 a little more stop-and-start hockey.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlex Bump scored his first-career NHL playoff goal in his first-career playoff game in Flyers vs. Penguins Game 5 on Monday.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sidney Crosby exited briefly in the second period when a shot from his teammate nailed his left leg.<\/p>\n

The future Hall of Fame center returned and assisted Letang’s go-ahead goal.<\/p>\n

Crosby has put up back-to-back multi-point efforts after recording just an assist through the first three games.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The series shifts back to Philadelphia for Game 6 on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET\/NBCSP).<\/p>\n

“We just need to dig a little bit deeper, a little bit more desperation, play a little bit harder,” Sanheim said. “But I believe in this group. We’ll look for a response back home.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 So much for the Flyers’ commanding lead. They have themselves a series. The Flyers suffered a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[109735,385,99],"class_list":["post-610800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-flyers-analysis","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}