Flyers take 3-0 series lead and the Penguins are officially dead men walking
Playoff hockey returned to Philadelphia on Wednesday night and the Flyers made sure the homecoming was worth the 8-year wait.
The Flyers beat the Penguins 5-2 at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday night to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. The building was a sea of orange. The crowd was unhinged from puck drop and the Flyers fed off every single second of it.
This was the first home playoff game in Philadelphia in exactly eight years. The last time this fanbase saw playoff hockey in this building was April 22, 2018, when the Flyers lost Game 6 to the Penguins in the first round.
Michal Neuvirth was in net. The defense had Gostisbehere, Provorov, Gudas, MacDonald, Manning, and Hagg.
Porter Martone was 11 years old. A lot has changed. The result hasn’t. The Flyers and Penguins are still going at it in the first round and the Flyers are winning. Convincingly.
The Flyers have outscored Pittsburgh 11-4 through three games. They’re one win away from advancing to the second round. The Penguins look like a team that knows it’s over.
The Second Period Was Pure Chaos
The game turned completely upside down 4:33 into the second period and it started with Travis Konecny getting pinned to the ice behind the Penguins’ net by Bryan Rust.
Konecny’s helmet got knocked off. Rust gave him some shots while he was down. The Flyers lost their minds. The building lost its mind. The penalty boxes loaded up.
When the dust settled, both teams had five players whistled for roughing but Rust got hit with four minutes. The Flyers got the power play and Trevor Zegras buried a slap shot from the circle to tie it 1-1. Xfinity Mobile Arena turned into an absolute madhouse.
Trevor Zegras game-tying Flyers goal
Then the Flyers blew the doors off. Rasmus Ristolainen scored his first career playoff goal in his 13th NHL season. Then Nick Seeler ripped a blast from the blue line past Skinner’s glove to make it 3-1.
Three goals in six minutes. The crowd started chanting Skinner’s name. The building was shaking. The Penguins were finished and everybody in the arena knew it.
Crosby Got His Assist and It Didn’t Matter
After getting held scoreless in Games 1 and 2, Crosby picked up an assist early in Game 3 on a Malkin power play goal that gave Pittsburgh its first lead of the entire series. For about five minutes, the Penguins looked like they had life. Then the Konecny-Rust sequence happened and the Flyers took the game over completely.
There were also some theatrics late in the first when Garnet Hathaway clipped Crosby in the face with his stick on a faceoff. Hathaway got called for high-sticking. But Crosby sold it like he’d been shot and the officials hit him with an embellishment penalty to even it out. Classic Crosby.
The man has three Stanley Cups and still can’t help himself from flopping like a fish every time a stick gets within six inches of his face. Hathaway knew it was a dive and let everybody in the building know it. The crowd loved every second of it.
Vladar Is the MVP of This Series
Twenty-eight saves on 30 shots. Three games in and Vladar has been the best player in this series by a wide margin. He had an injury scare in the third period when Rust came at him around the crease and Vladar was shaking his right blocker hand afterward. There was a stoppage. The crowd held its breath. Vladar stayed in the game. The building chanted “Vladdy” and the man just went right back to work.
If Vladar goes down in this series, it’s a completely different conversation. But he hasn’t. He’s been a wall. And the Penguins have absolutely no idea how to beat him.
Cates Came Up Huge When It Mattered
Pittsburgh cut it to 3-2 midway through the third on an Erik Karlsson power play goal after a bad Michkov roughing penalty. For a brief moment, the Penguins had life and the crowd got a little nervous.
Noah Cates killed it immediately with a power play goal to push it back to 4-2. That’s the kind of response that championship teams produce.
The Penguins scored and the Flyers answered within minutes. Owen Tippett iced it with an empty-netter and that was the ballgame.
One More Win
Game 4 is Saturday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. 8 p.m. ET on NBCSP. The Flyers can close this series out at home in front of a crowd that has waited six years for this moment. No team in NHL history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit more than four times.
The Penguins are old, slow, outmatched, and out of answers.
I said Flyers in 6 before the series. I might have been too generous to Pittsburgh. This could end Saturday night. Crosby and Malkin and Letang might be playing their last game together in Philadelphia on Saturday.
Let that sink in. The dynasty that tormented this franchise for over a decade might take its final breath at Xfinity Mobile Arena in front of a sea of orange.
Finish them.
Join The Chase
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