Flyers-Penguins news: Flyers shut out Penguins to take 2-0 series lead back to Philly

PITTSBURGH -- Two games here at PPG Paints Arena, two Flyers performances that were as solid and smart as could have been expected from a team so young and inexperienced in the postseason, and consider what we’re looking at now. They’re coming back for Game 3 on Wednesday, for the first playoff game in the Xfinity Mobile Arena in eight years, with a two-games-to-none lead and a home crowd that will be bathing in a kind of barbaric joy. The damn place promises to be a pot of boiling water.

What’s most important, though, is this: There is no reason at the moment to think the Flyers will lose this series. It’s not merely that the Penguins will have to beat them four times in no more than five games to pull off a minor miracle and advance — and that three of those games will be in Philadelphia. It’s that the Flyers aren’t playing like the team they are on paper.

On paper, they have so many players who had never been through the jungle of the NHL playoffs before — 10 regulars, to be precise — that it was fair to wonder whether the heightened intensity and pressure of the postseason could cause them to wobble. On paper, who in the world knew what to expect from them?

PITTSBURGH ― The Flyers are a freight train, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are standing on the tracks.

Philly went into Western Pennsylvania and left with a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series thanks to a 3-0 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference’s first round.

Porter Martone and Garnet Hathaway scored, the Flyers delivered several big-time hits, including Rasmus Ristolainen on Sidney Crosby in the first period, and Dan Vladař shut the door in the final frame.

Porter Martone's heroics have earned him a nickname beyond just "Marty."

It looks like we may have a winner after Martone's second-intermission interview with ESPN's P.K. Subban. When asked by Subban about his favorite nickname, Martone revealed he likes "Marty McFlyer" the best.

"I like Marty McFlyer, the boys have kind of been calling me that in the room, and I think that one might stick," said Martone on the broadcast.

Another lively first period. Another first period without any goals. Like in Game 1, neither the Flyers nor the Penguins were able to get one past the netminders, Stuart Skinner for Pittsburgh, and Dan Vladař for the Flyers, on a combined seven shots.

Here are three takeaways:

Penalty kill: The Flyers’ penalty kill limped across the finish line, allowing eight goals across the last 23 times they were shorthanded. They have broken through the regular-season-playoff continuum and, after going 2-for-2 in Game 1, are already 3-for-3 (across 3:49) on some questionable penalties. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Penguins had eight shot attempts but zero actual shots on goal with the man advantage.

The puck has dropped for Game 2 in Pittsburgh.

Can the Flyers take a commanding 2-0 series lead? Or will the battle-tested Penguins bounce back to even things before the series shifts to Philly?

Who wins the pivotal matchups on Monday will go a long way in determining the answers to those questions. Here's a refresher on which team owns the edge in several key categories, according to our experts.

With the Flyers climbing back to relevance and this past January's NCAA game between Penn State and Michigan State played at Beaver Stadium, many have hypothesized that the Battle of Pennsylvania could head outdoors again soon.

Here's what Commissioner Gary Bettman, who is in Pittsburgh for Game 2, answered our Jackie Spiegel's question on the topic:

“There's been discussions over time. At some point, that's something we're interested in pursuing, but the renovations there have put things, for a period of time, on hold. But I would envision at some point we'll make our way out to Happy Valley.”

PITTSBURGH ― The Flyers now have one game of playoff experience under their belt.

Noah Cates was one of the 10 Flyers making their playoff debut on Saturday in Game 1, in his fourth full NHL season with the team. There hasn’t been playoff hockey in Philadelphia since 2018, but Cates said it was almost better to get his first taste of playoff action on the road.

“To get away from home and have that first experience here,” Cates said. “We’re on the road, less noise around your house, or whatever it might be. It’s just easier on the road with food and different things like that, just show up and play and go to work.”

PITTSBURGH — Sean Couturier was officially shifted to the fourth line in Western Pennsylvania back on March 9. Since then, he has helped rebuild that trio into a formidable forechecking force, while also being relied on to kill penalties and play big minutes in tight games.

A veteran who will hit 1,000 NHL games next season, all with the Flyers, he took one for the team and accepted his new role.

“As long as we win, that’s all that matters. There’s no need to go into details, and all that; it’s all about winning,” the captain said on Monday, mentioning a meeting coach Rick Tocchet spoke on recently.

Chambersburg, Pa., is a quiet borough tucked away in south central Pennsylvania, not far from the Maryland border. It is best known for its Civil War history; in 1864, it garnered the unfortunate distinction of becoming the only Northern town to be destroyed in a fire by Confederate troops.

Every year, the Franklin County Visitors Bureau holds a ceremony to commemorate this event. Smoke fills the night air, as red lights beam out of the town’s historic courthouse to simulate a blaze. Actors, dressed in blue and gray military uniforms, abound.

Together, Chambersburg’s citizens celebrate their community’s resilience in the face of an unthinkable tragedy. It’s meant to be a time of healing and mutual respect.

PITTSBURGH — There are certain stories that transcend sports, and the Buffalo Sabres’ return to the NHL playoffs — and their bond with their fans — should be one of those stories. It’s also one that is similar to the Flyers’.

The last time the Sabres had qualified for the postseason was in 2011, when they lost a first-round series to the Flyers in seven games. It had been nothing but agony for hockey fans in Western New York for the subsequent 15 years until the Sabres won the Atlantic Division this season. Their 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins Sunday night, in Game 1 of the teams’ Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, was a fit for their magical turnaround: They became the first team in NHL history to win a playoff game in regulation after trailing by at least two goals with less than eight minutes left.

When it comes to pro sports, Buffalo is practically diet Philadelphia. It has just two major franchises — the Sabres and the Bills — and its people adore and are loyal to both, despite suffering through generations of disappointment. The Bills have never won a Super Bowl (though they did reach four in a row, losing each time). The Sabres have never won a Stanley Cup.

The Flyers recalled defensemen Oliver Bonk and David Jiříček from Lehigh Valley Monday, the team announced.

With the Phantoms season done, both will join the Black Aces, a group of extra players there to practice and play, if needed.

With the Flyers' starters resting, Bonk and Jiříček started last week's regular season finale against the Montreal Canadiens. During the game, Bonk earned his first career point with an assist and scored his first NHL goal.

The Flyers enter tonight's Game 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins looking to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

If the Orange and Black manage to pull off the win, it certainly bodes well for their playoff chances, if history has anything to say.

The last time the Flyers took a 2-0 playoff series lead was in 2012 against the Penguins. Philly went on to win that series 4-2 to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Flyers look to go up on the Penguins 2-0 tonight in Pittsburgh in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.

The game will air on NBC Sports Philadelphia in and around the city, with Jim Jackson and Brian Boucher on the call. Scott Hartnell will jump from the studio to the booth for Games 3 and 4 while Boucher is calling games for TNT Sports.

Nationally, ESPN will broadcast tonight's game, with Sean McDonough and Ray Ferraro handling the broadcast and Emily Kaplan reporting rinkside.

Back home in Peterborough, Ontario, Porter Martone spends days every summer and hours every day in his family’s yard, shooting pucks at a net that has a homemade goalie set in front of it. The goalie is actually a chair with a wooden plank, a goaltender’s mitt, and a goaltender’s blocker pad affixed to it, and Martone sets a smooth pad on the grass so he can fire away at the net’s upper and lower corners, testing himself against the Frankenstein’s monster that he himself created.

“Still do it to this day when I go back there,” he said Sunday, after the Flyers had practiced at PPG Paints Arena. “It’s had to be reconstructed over the years. It’s something I love to do.”

What was it that Branch Rickey is supposed to have said — that luck is the residue of design? Well, skill can be, too, and Martone’s winning goal in the Flyers’ 3-2 Game 1 victory over the Penguins, that right-circle wrist shot that he roofed with less than three minutes to go, was a perfect manifestation of the ability and diligence that he possesses — and that made the Flyers so comfortable with trusting him in the teeth of a playoff push.

Back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2020, the Flyers are hoping to celebrate some postseason victories with this season’s win song — “Man I Need” by Olivia Dean.

Owen Tippett took over as the Flyers’ designated DJ this year, and has put careful thought into the team’s music, but the inclusion of Dean’s track after a win came as a suggestion by fellow forward Trevor Zegras earlier this season.

“[Zegras] sits right beside me, and I just said, ‘Hey, what do you want to hear?’” Tippett said. “It was when it was popular, and he threw it up there, and I let it stick.”