Flyers rip off two road wins to open playoffs, put Penguins on their heels

PITTSBURGH — Rick Tocchet talked about the importance of the Flyers not feeling too comfortable with a series lead.

The head coach had liked his team’s businesslike approach after its Game 1 win. That sure seemed to pay off Monday night.

The Flyers blanked the Penguins, 3-0, at PPG Paints Arena to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round matchup. Tocchet’s club stunned a lot of people by winning the first two games on the road.

Dan Vladar was terrific again, providing his first shutout with the Flyers.

Porter Martone delivered another goal, giving him two in two career playoff games. He’s just 19 years old and not even a month out of college.

After Martone handed the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the second period, Garnet Hathaway struck a little over four minutes later at shorthanded. Owen Tippett made a determined and skillful play to find Hathaway for the 2-0 lead.

The Flyers fended off Pittsburgh in the third period. Luke Glendening’s empty-net goal sent fans to the exits.

Tocchet’s club now comes home to what should be a raucous Xfinity Mobile Arena.

The Flyers won the opening two games of a playoff series for the first time since 2012. Ironically, they did it against the Penguins then, too. The Flyers won that first-round series in six games.

Going back to Feb. 26 of the regular season and including the start to these playoffs, the Flyers have won 20 of their last 27 games. In that span, they’ve allowed just 2.26 goals per game.

“It’s a series and it’s a war,” Noah Cates said before the game. “A little crack can go a long way, whether you see it on a team or kind of your body language and stuff like that. So you’ve just got to be strong mentally and physically, do all the right things and do it over and over to break them down little by little.”

• Vladar denied all 27 shots he faced.

The 28-year-old really closed the door in the third period when Pittsburgh made a concerted push.

With under seven and a half minutes to go, he stopped a redirection by Evgeni Malkin when the Flyers lost the winger backdoor.

Vladar had a massive save on Samuel Girard early in the third period to keep the Flyers’ lead at 2-0.

The Flyers played with fire a bit in the first period when they put the Penguins on the power play three times. They weren’t hurt, though, keeping the game scoreless going into intermission.

Travis Sanheim did a nice job to negate one of the power plays when he put pressure on Pittsburgh up ice and drew a tripping penalty on Erik Karlsson.

The Flyers’ penalty kill finished a perfect 5 for 5.

Penguins netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 20 of 22 shots.

He denied Tippett on a penalty shot in the third period, but the Flyers got their insurance with Glendening’s empty-netter.

More: Flyers start playoffs with sweet new shirt that ‘says a lot’

• Martone just continues to open eyes.

For him to be making this much of an impact already has been flat-out impressive. Travis Konecny and Christian Dvorak made strong plays to assist Martone’s game-opening goal.

Tippett and Hathaway then took the air totally out of the building when they connected.

More: Dvorak ‘fits in everywhere’ with Flyers, a team he believed could make playoffs

• After holding Sidney Crosby scoreless in Game 1, the Flyers pulled it off again.

They’ve quieted No. 87 so far.

Crosby, of course, has been the ultimate Flyers killer. He owns 139 points (60 goals, 79 assists) in 93 career regular-season games against the Flyers. In the playoffs, he has put up 36 points (15 goals, 21 assists) in 25 career meetings with the Flyers.

• Noah Juulsen entered the lineup for Emil Andrae, who missed the game because of an upper-body.

Andrae didn’t practice Sunday. He has been considered day to day.

• The series shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

It’ll mark the Flyers’ first playoff action on home ice since 2018; the 2020 postseason was forced into the bubble because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.