PITTSBURGH — For the first time since 2022, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and his future Hall of Fame teammates returned to the Stanley Cup playoffs.
For the first time since 2020, so did the Philadelphia Flyers, who have already been playing playoff-style hockey for the past month in their desperate pursuit of a postseason berth. They looked every bit the part in a 3-2 victory on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Game 1 of the best-of-seven first-round series.
Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim broke a 1-1 tie midway through the third period, dancing around Penguins forward Elmer Söderblom before firing a shot from the slot past Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner.
The Flyers controlled the play early and often with a bruising style of hockey that clearly impacted the Penguins, starting the game by unleashing 17 hits in the first period.
Skinner, who was outstanding all evening, stopped a series of Grade-A looks early in the second period to keep the score even. Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale finally beat him, with some help from Penguins defenseman Sam Girard screening his own goaltender, to put Philadelphia ahead.
An Evgeni Malkin goal late in the second period gave the Penguins life and temporarily energized the building, but with the way this game went, they never had a chance. The Flyers put on a defensive clinic and finally started capitalizing on the Penguins’ many mistakes.
Sanheim broke the tie, and rookie forward Porter Martone scored his first career postseason goal late in the third to make it 3-1. A Bryan Rust goal for the Penguins made it 3-2 with 1:01 left in the game, but Pittsburgh ran out of time to find the equalizer.
“They were better than us,” Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson said after the game. “That’s it. We did not deserve to win this game.”
Game 2 of the series will be played Monday night. Here’s what we saw in Game 1:
Sanheim leads the way on both ends
Sanheim scored a highlight-reel goal midway through the third period, but the veteran defenseman was a force on the blue line all night, getting involved physically as much as he has all season. Sanheim keyed a remarkable defensive performance from the Flyers against the NHL’s third-ranked offense in the regular season, holding the Penguins to just 17 shots.
“I think I understand the level that’s needed to play in the playoffs and understand the challenge ahead and my job and playing against top guys,” Sanheim said. “And just try to play them hard and as best that I can and limit their time and space.”
Sanheim’s partner, Rasmus Ristolainen — playing in the first playoff game of his 13-year career — also dialed up the physicality, drilling Rust just 20 seconds into the first period.
Flyers stick with it on offense
The Flyers had a significant edge in scoring chances through the first two periods but managed only the one goal by Drysdale. Before that, Christian Dvorak rang a shot off the post a little more than a minute into the game on a pass from Martone, and on the Flyers’ first power play, Skinner stopped Dvorak’s redirection with 12:20 to go.
Trevor Zegras and Owen Tippett both had breakaway opportunities in the second, while Skinner also turned away a Noah Cates shot on a two-on-one with Denver Barkey. Although the Penguins had some lengthy shifts in the Flyers’ end in the second period, the Flyers maintained their composure and outplayed the Penguins in the third.
Martone puts it away
Martone wasn’t all that noticeable for much of the game, but he still managed the most skillful offensive play of the night. The 19-year-old’s snipe over Skinner’s shoulder at 17:23 was his fifth goal in 10 games, allowing the Flyers to comfortably close out the win.
Martone seems to have a knack for impacting the game even when he’s not at his best, and that didn’t change in the teenager’s playoff debut.
“Being able to play the playoffs, you know, for me, it’s my 10th NHL game, it’s pretty special and it’s an opportunity that you can’t pass up,” Martone said.
Classic Malkin
The full Malkin experience was on display in this one.
Malkin was out of control at times in the first period, as the playoffs’ energy brought out his ornery side. He face-washed players behind play, had words with the Flyers bench and took himself out of the action on a couple of occasions by looking for hits. Malkin was also guilty of a couple of terrible giveaways, one of which led to a Philadelphia breakaway.
Malkin has been participating in the Stanley Cup playoffs for two decades, yet he looked unable to control his emotions for most of the night.
Of course, in classic Malkin fashion, he then evened the score late in the second period on a shot from the right circle, sending the sellout crowd at PPG Paints Arena into a frenzy.
“It’s what we talked about, you know? We should play our game,” Malkin said. “I think we, a little bit, lost control in the second period. … We start fighting. This is what they want, you know? We know it’s a tight, physical game, but we need to play better.
“Our blue line, we should control the puck a little bit, play deeper and try to focus, like, maybe a little bit more behind the net. We give them so many chances. Again, it’s just the first game, but we need to regroup and come back for the next game Monday.”
Skinner strong in defeat
On a night when many of his teammates were apparently unaware that the postseason had arrived, Skinner was up for the challenge.
The Penguins’ goaltender was their best player and the only reason they were still in the game through 40 minutes.
Skinner faced four breakaways in the first two periods; one of them clanged off the post, and he stopped the other three, including one against Zegras, a talented breakaway artist. In the third period, he stopped another against Barkey.
The Penguins sustained one defensive meltdown after another and coughed up the puck a remarkable number of times. However, the goaltender whom the Edmonton Oilers traded largely because he wasn’t good enough in the playoffs was plenty good enough in this one, and far better than his teammates.
“Their team’s got a lot speed, so their transition game is one of the best in the NHL,” Skinner said. “It’s definitely something that we’ve got to make sure that we’re on top of. But again, we kept it close.”
