Flyers’ comeback falls short as Penguins win 4-2 to push series back to Pittsburgh

The last time the Flyers swept a series was way back in 1995, when they won four straight to oust the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. They will have to wait at least another round to break that drought.

Despite another raucous crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena, the Flyers were handed a 4-2 loss by the Pittsburgh Penguins, cutting into their lead in the best-of-seven series, which now stands at three games to one. Dating back to the regular season, it snapped a six-game winning streak for the hometown team.

Knowing their playoff lives were on the line, Pittsburgh came out and played a smart first period, shutting down the Flyers’ speed — except for Owen Tippett — and taking a 1-0 lead on a power-play goal by none other than Sidney Crosby.

» READ MORE: Flyers-Penguins: Pittsburgh avoids the sweep with 4-2 road win in Game 4

Five seconds after Denver Barkey was called for high-sticking, when his blade got under the helmet of Samuel Girard, Crosby won the faceoff back to Erik Karlsson and found space before sweeping a shot on goal. The shot popped off the glove of Dan Vladař, who did not practice on Thursday and was off along with the rest of the team on Friday.

The Flyers did pick up the pace, notably after Crosby’s goal, with Trevor Zegras thinking he had scored on a between-the-legs move after a shot by Rasmus Ristolainen deflected off the stick of Crosby and the end boards. The NHL’s situation room initiated the review after Artūrs Šilovs, making his first appearance in the series in place of Stuart Skinner, caught it in the crux of his elbow; Zegras thought it was over the goal line.

Not to be outdone, Vladař made an unreal sliding pad save on Crosby as he got behind the defense and tapped a Bryan Rust leading pass on goal. By the end of 20 minutes, the Flyers trailed 1-0, but had outshot Pittsburgh 9-5 and laid 16 hits in a less physical period than normal for this series.

Just 63 seconds into the second period, Rickard Rakell made it 2-0 Pittsburgh when Vladař came out to play a ring-around by Rust. Rakell cut through Cam York and put pressure on the Czech netminder, causing him to turn the puck over. It popped out toward the front of the net, and Rakell, while diving, knocked the puck into the open net ahead of the sprawling Vladař.

Less than a minute later, a shot by Crosby bounced around the crease, and Christian Dvorak saved a sure goal by Anthony Mantha with his skate to keep the game close. It became a critical moment because later in the period, the Flyers finally broke through on Šilovs to make it a one-goal game.

Owen Tippett dumped the puck in, and Zegras, just off the bench, swooped in to get the puck behind the net after Šilovs went out to play it, turning away from Penguins blueliner Parker Wotherspoon in the process. The Flyers worked the puck around the perimeter before Zegras got it in the right circle. With a lot of time and space, he walked in on goal before sending it to Barkey in front for the tap-in.

The goal was Barkey’s first career postseason goal, and York, who had passed the puck to Zegras, got his first career playoff point. The tally got the crowd back into it as the Flyers kept pressing, and with 46 seconds left in the middle frame, Travis Sanheim rang the puck off the crossbar after he got behind the defense when a three-on-two turned into a two-on-one with him and Travis Konecny.

Things looked to be turning in the Flyers’ favor as they had picked up the pace, but less than five minutes into the third period, Kris Letang walked the line before ripping a slap shot from the high slot. It was scored during four-on-four action after Garnet Hathaway was called for elbowing Karlsson, who got some punches in after the fact and was awarded a minor for roughing.

But, as they’ve shown all season long, the Flyers don’t quit, and less than three minutes later, they had again made it a one-goal game.

The Flyers got the puck deep with Porter Martone getting the puck up to Ristolainen at the point. He settled the bouncing puck and sent it to his partner, Sanheim, as he was skating towards him. The blueliner got the puck and almost lost it as he split between two Penguins before chipping it low to Dvorak along the end boards. Dvorak quickly fired the puck to Konecny, who one-timed a perfect shot over the shoulder of Šilovs.

The goal was Konecny’s first goal of the playoffs and second of his career, while Sanheim now has 10 points in 24 career playoff games.

But the Flyers couldn’t net the equalizer, and Connor Dewar added an empty-netter with just under a minute to go to seal the series going back to Pittsburgh.

Flyers coach Rick Tocchet was the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks when Šilovs made his NHL debut in February 2023, and the Latvian netminder started 10 games in the 2024 postseason for the team.

Game 5 is Monday in Pittsburgh (7 p.m., ESPN).