Playoffs return to Philly with a bang as Flyers take stranglehold of Penguins

If anyone thought the rivalry between the Flyers and Penguins had lost its luster, they can think again.

The dislike between these two teams was alive and well Wednesday night as this best-of-seven first-round playoff series shifted to Philadelphia for Game 3.

The Flyers fueled off the intensity of the game and their rabid crowd to notch a 5-2 win over Pittsburgh at Xfinity Mobile Arena, which featured a sea of orange in the stands.

The victory handed Rick Tocchet’s club a commanding 3-0 series lead.

“The crowd was really loud tonight,” Tocchet said. “It’s nice to see that building rocking like that. It has been a while.”

Trevor Zegras, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler ripped off three goals in a feisty and decisive second period.

Noah Cates provided crucial insurance with a power play goal in the third period after Pittsburgh cut the Flyers’ lead to one.

Owen Tippett iced the game with an empty-netter.

The Flyers enjoyed their first home playoff game in exactly eight years (the 2020 postseason was in the bubble). The last time the fan base saw playoff action in Philadelphia was April 22, 2018, when the Flyers lost a first-round Game 6 to the Penguins.

Michal Neuvirth was in net for the Flyers. The team’s defense featured Shayne Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov, Radko Gudas, Andrew MacDonald, Brandon Manning and Robert Hagg. Porter Martone was just 11 years old.

In this series, the Flyers have outscored Pittsburgh 11-4 through three games. They’re one win away from advancing to the second round.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Tocchet said. “The hardest one to win is the next one. … It’s back to business tomorrow. That’s the way we have to act.”

• The game went completely upside down just 4:33 minutes into the second period.

Travis Konecny, the Flyers’ emotional leader, was pinned to the ice by Bryan Rust behind the Penguins’ net. The Flyers, along with Konecny, became incensed.

“It at least fired the crowd up, which probably fired us up, too,” Ristolainen said. “I feel like maybe that was one of the turning points there.”

Rust appeared to be frustrated by taking an elbow from Konecny. While down on the ice, Konecny had his helmet knocked off as Rust gave him some shots.

After the game, via DK Pittsburgh Sports, Rust accused Konecny of kicking him during the scuffle.

When the dust finally settled, the Flyers were awarded a power play. The Flyers and Pittsburgh each had five players whistled for roughing, but Rust received four minutes.

“There are tons of scrums throughout the games, in the last three games,” Konecny said. “That one kind of got escalated there, out of hand. It ended up working out in our favor, we got some momentum out of it.”

The Flyers took advantage of the power play when Zegras tied the game at 1-1 on a slap shot from the circle. At that point, Xfinity Mobile Arena had turned into a madhouse.

The Flyers made it a game-changing second period. They built on the energy as Ristolainen scored his first career playoff goal in his 13th NHL season before Seeler joined the fun with a blast from the blue line.

The three goals came in the span of six minutes. The Flyers went into second intermission with a 3-1 lead and all of the momentum.

“That was the craziest building I’ve ever played in,” Seeler said. “The fans were fantastic.”

• Coming off his first shutout with the Flyers, Dan Vladar converted 28 saves on 30 shots in Game 3.

The 28-year-old continued to be the Flyers’ all-important piece.

Vladar appeared to survive an injury scare in the third period. He was shaking his right blocker hand after Rust tried to make a play around the crease on a Pittsburgh power play.

After an injury stoppage, Vladar was able to stay in the game. Fans chanted his nickname of “Vladdy.”

“He’s banged up, we’ll see how he is tomorrow,” Tocchet said. “But I don’t know at this moment how bad it is.”

The Flyers avoided damage on that Penguins power play as Vladar hung in there. However, Matvei Michkov then committed an ill-timed roughing penalty. Pittsburgh capitalized as Erik Karlsson trimmed the Flyers’ lead to 3-2 a little under midway through the final stanza.

But Cates responded.

Penguins netminder Stuart Skinner stopped 24 of 28 shots.

As the Flyers surged ahead, 2-1, in the span of just 3:48 minutes, fans started to chant Skinner’s last name. Seeler then zipped a long-distance shot past Skinner’s glove to pad the Flyers’ lead and elicit more chants.

• After the Flyers held Sidney Crosby scoreless over the first two games of the series, the three-time Stanley Cup champion picked up an assist just 4:18 minutes into Game 3.

Pittsburgh’s power play struck for the first time in the series after Sean Couturier was whistled for tripping. Evgeni Malkin finished off a tic-tac-toe sequence to give the Penguins a 1-0 edge, their first lead of the series.

Some theatrics ensued late in the first period with Crosby and Garnet Hathaway. The Flyers’ winger clipped Crosby in the face with his stick as Pittsburgh’s center was preparing to take a faceoff.

Hathaway was whistled for high-sticking, but he was also visibly adamant that Crosby took a dive. After consultation, the officials hit Crosby with an embellishment penalty, evening out the infractions.

“We don’t have a single embellishment all year,” Penguins head coach Dan Muse said. “Sidney Crosby doesn’t have an embellishment in 21 seasons. The stick’s in his face and they [penalize] both of them. So I disagree on that strongly.”

• The Flyers and Penguins have two days before the series resumes Saturday with Game 4 at Xfinity Mobile Arena (8 p.m. ET/NBCSP).

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