PITTSBURGH (AP) — Travis Sanheim scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers announced their return to the playoffs with a 3-2 win over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
Philadelphia pulled off a stunner in the opener when Sanheim split a pair of Penguins at the top of the zone, glided down the slot and then fired the puck by Stuart Skinner. Porter Martone, the Flyers' 19-year-old rookie forward, provided some needed insurance when he beat Skinner on a wrist shot with 2:37 to play.
Game 2 is in Pittsburgh on Monday.
Jamie Drysdale also scored for the Flyers, who hardly appeared intimidated by an electric PPG Paints Arena crowd buzzing by Pittsburgh's first playoff appearance since 2022. Dan Vladar stopped 14 shots to pick up the first postseason win of his six-year career.
Evgeni Malkin scored his 68th career playoff goal for Pittsburgh but the Penguins, the NHL's third-highest scoring team during the regular season, had trouble sustaining pressure against the Flyers. Bryan Rust pounded home a rebound with 1:01 remaining to get Pittsburgh within a goal, but Vladar stoned Anthony Mantha in the final seconds as Philadelphia held on.
The eighth all-time playoff meeting between the cross-state rivals may also be the most surprising. The Penguins' retooling under general manager Kyle Dubas unexpectedly picked up speed under first-year coach Dan Muse. The Flyers — who arrived at PPG Paints Arena for their morning skate wearing T-shirts with sleeves that had “3.8 percent” printed on them as nod to their slim postseason chances a couple months ago — used a scorching final stretch to reach the postseason for the first time since 2020.
Yet with so many new faces on both sides — only a handful of players remain from the 2018 teams that met in the first round — the series began with something that felt more like curiosity than animosity.
It did not take long, however, for familiar feelings to emerge as things quickly grew testy. Philadelphia's Rasmus Ristolainen, making his playoff debut after 820 regular-season games, drew a roughing call less than two minutes in for taking down towering 6-foot-8 Penguins forward Elmer Soderblom. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was hit with a roughing minor after getting tangled up with Drysdale, who was called for interference during the same sequence.
The Flyers asserted command in the second. Philadelphia created a handful of odd-man rushes that Skinner — who backstopped Edmonton to consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearances before being acquired by Pittsburgh in December — turned aside before Drysdale's first career playoff goal just before the game's midway point.
The defenseman skated into the right circle and flipped a puck toward the net that found its way past Skinner, who had trouble locating it thanks to a terrific screen by Flyers forward Denver Barkley.
Pittsburgh evened it just over six minutes later when Malkin swooped into the right circle and blistered a shot from the faceoff dot that split Vladar's legs to tie it.
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