The Philadelphia Flyers made their first playoff appearance in six years on Saturday, April 18. In a game against their biggest rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins, tensions were high. The teams hadn’t met for over a month, with the Flyers winning in a shootout on March 7. The teams each won two games during the 2025-2026 series between them.
Since the Olympic break, the Flyers have been the best team in the league, but that doesn’t always translate to playoff hockey, especially with such a young team in a highly emotional environment.
The first period, while far from boring, found the teams scoreless at the end of 20:00. Four minor penalties were assessed, giving each team one power play opportunity and then a pair of minors following Sidney Crosby taking off Jamie Drysdale’s helmet while Drysdale was interfering with Crosby. Through the regular season, the Penguins had better special teams than the Flyers, being 24.1% effective on the power play to the Flyers’ 15.7% and 81.4% effective on the penalty kill to the Flyers’ 77.6%.
Drysdale opened the scoring for the series with assists from Trevor Zegras and Denver Barkey. Zegras’ pass from the goal line sent Drysdale into perfect position at the right face-off dot to send the puck through traffic and past Stuart Skinner.
Travis Sanheim was then sent off for interference on Crosby. Evgeni Malkin nailed a shot home, tying the game after the penalty and sending the Pittsburgh crowd into a frenzy. Things continued to be heated on the ice, with officials having to remind Crosby and Sean Courturier to keep their teams in line and keep extra-curriculars to between the whistles.
Towards the end of the second, Anthony Mantha sat for two minutes for cross-checking Rasmus Ristolainen, though the Flyers could not convert. After coming out of the box, Mantha sat down again in the third after high-sticking Flyers’ newcomer, Porter Martone.
Sanheim gave the Flyers’ the lead once more halfway through the third from Ristolainen and Christian Dvorak. Martone, continuing to make a name for himself in his first run through the NHL, scored a wrister from Travis Konecny and Ristolainen.
This kid is ridiculous. #IgniteTheOrange pic.twitter.com/tcM50ofQ0D
— x – Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) April 19, 2026
A set of minors sent Crosby and Sanheim to the box for the remainder of regulation. With Skinner out of the net and six men on for Pittsburgh, Bryan Rust was able to snap the puck past Dan Vladar, but the team could not find the equalizer.
The Flyers are currently up 1-0 in the seven game series over the Penguins for Round One of the Stanley Cup Finals. The teams will face each other again on Monday night in Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. with the game available on ESPN.
