Broad Street has been bouncing as of recently. Surprisingly, it isn’t the Eagles or Phillies firing the crowd up. It’s the Orange and the Black.
Few environments can reach the level of intensity that playoff hockey brings forth every game. Adding the 8 year playoff drought coming to a close, and the fact that Philadelphia is a harsh environment to enter as an away team, and Xfinity Mobile Arena suddenly becomes a hostile environment for visitors.
Games 1 and 2 were handled by Philadelphia. From the puck drop to the final horn the Flyers never trailed in Pittsburgh. Dan Vladar provided a shutout performance in game 2 to go with a dominant 1 goal performance in game 1 (until a goal with an extra attacker). Porter Martone, Owen Tippet, and Travis Sanheim led the charge in Pittsburgh. Martone scored in both games in Pittsburgh. Sanheim scored in game 1, and led the defensive unit to allow zero goals in game 2. Tippet leads the series in hits, with a nasty assist to show for a short-handed goal in game 2. Vladar has been sensational
Flyers first home playoff game in 8 years went down, and boy was it something.
Not even 5 minutes into the game, Sean Couturier got sent to the box for hooking. This was the first of 14 penalties on the Flyers, to go with the Penguins’ 11. Evgeni Malkin scored on the power play to make it 1-0 after period 1. At one point in the second, both lines got sent to the box, resulting in both penalty boxes overflowing. 5 Flyers and 6 Penguins ended up in the box, and the Flyers capitalized on this chance with a Trevor Zegras snap shot to tie the game. Defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen followed it up with a goal of his own less than 5 minutes later. 2 minutes and 12 seconds later, Nick Seeler found the back of the net to suddenly take a 3-1 lead at the blink of an eye. The Flyers would go on to take the victory, and the 3-0 series lead.
With their backs against the wall, Sidney Crosby netted one early in game 4. It was a grueling fight to keep the game close, but the Penguins also scored the second goal to make it 2-0. By this point the Flyers woke up, but too late, and the Penguins took the series back to Pittsburgh.
Out west in the keystone state the Flyers looked to send the Penguins home again in a gentleman’s sweep. Yet again, there was another early goal for Pittsburgh making game 5 a tall task. The fight for the next goal was not won by the Flyers thanks to a Penguins 2nd period goal. However, it only took 12 seconds for winger Alex Bump to bring the deficit back to one with his first career playoff goal, in his first career playoff game.
The rest of the 2nd was a dogfight. Both teams committed clear penalties with the referees letting both sides duke it out. Our prayers were answered right after the 5 minute mark with a Travis Sanheim snipe to tie the game.
With no goals separating these two teams in an intense matchup, only one more would be scored. Unfortunately, it would come for the Penguins. It wasn’t your everyday goal. Kris Letang dumped the puck into the zone behind the net. It bounced off the boards back into the middle, where it hit Dan Vladar in the back. Vladar dropped into butterfly and began to back up, scoring the game winning goal on accident from between his pads.
As expected, this matchup has been a physical, dirty series so far. With nothing but elimination games to come it will only get worse. The Flyers ended the season top 5 in hits, and led the series in them. If they can continue to match/outdo the Penguins intensity wise, there is no doubt one of the next 2 games won’t go their way. Game 6 is Wednesday at Xfinity Mobile Arena again, where the Flyers can send the Penguins home with the series finishing 4-2.
