PHILADELPHIA — Before the start of the Philadelphia Flyers’ first-round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, there were a few things seemingly everyone figured would have to happen if the Flyers were to pull off the upset.
They would have to keep the game at five-on-five as much as possible. They would have to contain Sidney Crosby, who has wrecked them more than any other player over the past two decades. And they would have to hope that Dan Vladar, who had never started a playoff game, would continue to give them the steady, mistake-free goaltending he provided for the majority of the season.
None of that happened in Game 4, a 4-2 loss at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday. Crosby scored a first-period power-play goal, and his brilliant assist on Kris Letang’s game-winning goal in the third period — winning a board battle and kicking the puck to the defenseman at the point — came during a four-on-four situation with Garnet Hathaway and Erik Karlsson in the penalty box on coincidental minors.
Sandwiched in between was an early second-period gift to Rickard Rakell, who took advantage of a careless turnover by Vladar behind the Flyers’ net.
The Flyers got goals from Denver Barkey in the second period to make it 2-1 and Travis Konecny in the third to pull them to within 3-2. They pressed hard late after Konecny’s score but couldn’t find the equalizer against Penguins goalie Artūrs Šilovs, getting his first start of the series. Connor Dewar’s empty-net marker clinched a Game 5 back in Pittsburgh on Monday at 7 p.m.
“A good lesson for us,” Travis Sanheim said. “I think (it’s) just understanding how hard it is to get that fourth one.”
That much was evident early. The Penguins, fighting for their lives, were all over the Flyers, and their first period was their best of the series so far. They cruised through the neutral zone and pressured the Flyers in their own end.
Still, the Flyers could have gotten out of it unscathed had they been a bit more careful. Barkey’s high-sticking minor at 14:19 of the first was particularly ill-timed. The rookie forward was battling in front of the Penguins’ net just as Matvei Michkov was curling around and looking for a shooting lane. Barkey got his stick up and whacked Sam Girard in the head for an easy call.
Five seconds was all it took for the Penguins to take advantage. They won the ensuing offensive-zone draw, Karlsson immediately slid a puck to Crosby near the top of the circle, and Crosby, in one motion, swiped it past Vladar — who got a piece of it, but not enough. It was Crosby’s 16th career playoff goal against the Flyers, the most they’ve allowed to any opposing player in franchise history.
But the real backbreaker came just about a minute into the second. Vladar was pressured by Bryan Rust, and his attempted rim hit Rakell and drifted out toward the unguarded net. A diving Rakell pushed it over, giving the Penguins a 2-0 lead.
Vladar shrugged it off.
“It happens to every single goalie,” he said. “Obviously, not ideal in a type of game like that. Only thing we can do is try to focus on the next play. Everybody saw it. There’s nothing to talk about.”
Vladar didn’t like the first goal he allowed, either, even though he made a stellar save on Crosby off the rush shortly after that.
“First two weren’t great from my end,” Vladar said. “Hopefully, I’ll be better on Monday.”
Others will have to be, too. Coach Rick Tocchet was displeased with the way the Flyers came out of the gate, as they failed to match the Penguins’ intensity or sharpness.
“We were throwing pucks away too much,” Tocchet said, repeating a complaint he had from Game 2. “The second half, we started coming to our game. I don’t think it’s a ton of adjustments. I think we’ve got to dig a little bit more. I didn’t see much digging early from some guys, and we’ve got to make sure right from the beginning we dig off the bat.”
Said Konecny: “You knew they were going to (come out desperate). I thought we were kind of letting them play their game a little bit. I thought we answered well in the second half of the game. You could feel it was coming. Just a little bit too late.”
Konecny took the blame for the game-winning goal. Seeing a loose puck along the wall, Crosby immediately charged toward it and got inside position on Konecny. Crosby played it from his right skate to his left, and then kicked it back to Letang, who had all kinds of room to walk into the high slot before blasting it cleanly past Vladar to push the Penguins’ lead to 3-1.
“The four-on-four, I just lost the wall battle,” Konecny said. “It kind of feels like we could have tied the game up if I didn’t make that mistake. (We’ll) move on.”
The open ice on Letang’s goal after Hathaway elbowed Karlsson — and Karlsson gave him a couple of rabbit punches in return, sending them both off — is just what the Flyers want to avoid against a Penguins team that finished third in the league in scoring. At five-on-five, the Flyers outscored the Penguins 2-1 on Saturday, and have an 8-2 edge overall for the series.
They already know the biggest key to closing out this series will be keeping it five-on-five as much as they can.
“We’ve got to stay out of the box. That kind of kills momentum,” Christian Dvorak said. “I like our chances five-on-five, and we get to roll our lines and everything.”
There is reason to believe they’ll rebound. One of the Flyers’ more positive traits, throughout most of the season and during their late regular-season surge, especially, is that they’ve responded well after losses. Tocchet even mentioned it Saturday morning, pointing out that when the Flyers dropped a 6-3 decision to Detroit on April 9 — jeopardizing their playoff position — they responded with a resounding 7-1 win in Winnipeg two nights later.
The Flyers lost consecutive games just once after the Olympic break.
“After losses, we seem to regroup good,” Sanheim said. “Just keep doing what we’re doing, regroup, get ready. I don’t think anyone expected us to be up 3-0 in the series. A 3-1 series lead, we’ll take it, move on and get ready for Monday.”
Said Vladar: “If somebody told you guys before the series we were going to be up 3-1 after four games, you guys wouldn’t believe us, so we’re good. Nothing is changing for us. Still being positive. They are a really good team. It’s not easy to win four in a row against a team like that. We are fine here.”
We’ll find out soon enough.
