Flyers beat the Penguins 3-2 in Game 1, as young Porter Martone stars again

PITTSBURGH ― As the Flyers skated out of the tunnel, boos rained down, chants with some not-so-nice words were said, and yellow towels were waved furiously at PPG Paints Arena.

Despite facing a hostile cross-state crowd and fielding a roster with 10 players making their Stanley Cup playoff debut against a team with four potential Hall of Famers, the Flyers came ready to play and beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2, in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

Although it took some time for either team to get on the board, the action was packed. The Battle of Pennsylvania was not for the weak-hearted as the Flyers and Pens traded hit after bone-crunching hit, with the Flyers laying 17 in the first period and another 15 in the second. Philly finished with 40 hits, and Pittsburgh had 41.

“We were ready to play today,” forward Trevor Zegras said. “That was something that we had talked about going into the game, that we knew it was going to be physical, that first period, especially. So I like the way we started the game.”

The Flyers did not appear fazed by the moment, maybe because they had compiled an 18-7-1 record after the Olympic break, while playing in meaningful game after meaningful game to claw their way back into the playoff picture.

Porter Martone, 19, made a great play to a crashing Christian Dvorak, who hit the crossbar, less than two minutes in. Tyson Foerster stripped Kris Letang of the puck, cut to the net, and almost scored a la Bobby Orr as he drew a penalty. Sean Couturier missed just high on as he broke to the net, and the fleet-footed Owen Tippett made a spin-o-rama move around Erik Karlsson that Stuart Skinner saved.

In the press box, the buzz was that the Flyers should have been up 3-0 after the first period. Instead, they did not get on the board until their 14th shot of the game and more than 11 minutes into the middle frame.

“It was just stay patient,” defenseman Jamie Drysdale said of the message in between periods. “We played a good brand of hockey in the first period, and we had chances, and we had chances in the second, and something was going to give. So just stay patient, stay consistent.”

The line of Zegras, Tippett, and Foerster controlled play in the Pittsburgh zone, with Tippett throwing a hit into Penguins center Blake Lizotte to take the puck away in the right corner. It eventually ended up on the stick of Zegras, and after the center skated around the Pittsburgh net uncontested, he found Drysdale atop the right circle.

Drysdale carried the puck down confidently, and ripped a wrister through the five-hole of Skinner as Denver Barkey, who had come on for Foerster, screened the goalie. Drysdale, Zegras, and Barkey, all playing in their first playoff game, notched their first points.

The Penguins tied the game 1-1 on a goal by Evgeni Malkin from the right circle. Coming off the bench, he picked up the puck and sent a wrister through the legs of Noah Cates and under the pads of Dan Vladař, who was spectacular again.

Malkin, a surefire future Hall of Famer, now has 68 goals and 181 points in 178 playoff games, and is one point shy of tying Bryan Trottier for the 13th-most points in NHL history.

But while the end of the second period looked like the ice was tilting for the Penguins, the Flyers came out of the gate in the third with some oomph and got a goal from a veteran.

Once again, the Flyers controlled the puck, this time working it around the perimeter to Rasmus Ristolainen at the right point. He sent it over to his partner, Travis Sanheim, and the Manitoban accepted the pass in the middle of the ice, split through Penguins forwards Elmer Söderblom and Anthony Mantha — mind you, this was after he was facing Ristolainen and had to turn and pick up speed while cruising the blue line.

The goal was Sanheim’s third in the playoffs with Ristolainen, making his postseason debut after playing 820 regular-season games, and Dvorak, getting the assists. Dvorak played in his 15th playoff game, recording his sixth point (four goals, two assists).

» READ MORE: Rick Tocchet is no stranger to the Flyers-Penguins rivalry, says the stakes don’t change

And then it was the rookie sensation joining the party with his first playoff goal as he continued his hot streak since joining the team with nine games remaining in the regular season.

After Ristolainen flipped the puck out of trouble from deep in the Flyers zone, Travis Konecny controlled the bouncer with his glove and had his pass attempt go off Letang and right to Martone. The 2025 first-rounder scooped up the puck, skated into the offensive zone, curled in the right circle to create space and wait for help, and fired the puck past Skinner, off the crossbar, and in for a 3-1 lead.

It shouldn’t come as a shock that he has one Stanley Cup playoff game and has one point. Martone had 10 points (four goals, six assists) in nine games during the regular season.

Bryan Rust scored with 61 seconds left from the bumper to cut it to a one-goal game, but Vladař shut the door with a masterful stop on a backhand by Mantha as he cut across the crease with six seconds left.

It was one of several big-time stops the goalie made in his first career start in the postseason; he had two mop-up appearances, one each with the Boston Bruins and Calgary Flames. He stopped Sidney Crosby three times, Karlsson twice, and stopped Söderblom twice early in the third period from in tight.

Martone is the first teenager this century to score a game-winning goal in his NHL playoff debut. .... Both teams had goose eggs on the power play, with the Flyers going 0-for-3 on the man advantage and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. ... The Flyers had a goal waived off for goaltender interference in the first period when the puck scored off Dvorak on a power play, but he had fallen over Skinner in the process. ... Forwards Garrett Wilson, Alex Bump, and Carl Grundström, and defenseman Noah Juulsen were the healthy scratches.

The Flyers lead the best-of-seven series 1-0. Game 2 will be in Pittsburgh on Monday at 7 p.m. (7 p.m., NBCSP, ESPN).

» READ MORE: Follow the Inquirer's complete coverage of the Flyers in the playoffs right here!