Vladar makes 27 saves, Flyers shut out Penguins in Game 2 of East 1st round

PITTSBURGH -- Dan Vladar made 27 saves, including 25 in the final two periods, and Porter Martone scored for the second straight game for the Philadelphia Flyers, who extended their lead in the Eastern Conference First Round with a 3-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 2 at PPG Paints Arena on Monday.

It was Vladar’s first career shutout in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (second start). The 28-year-old goalie also didn’t record a shutout in 51 starts (52 games played) during the regular season.

Martone, a 19-year-old rookie forward and the No. 6 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, became the 12th teenager in NHL history, and the first for Philadelphia, to score in each of his first two postseason games.

“I think I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the guys in this room,” Martone said. “They’ve taught me a lot, not just on the hockey side, but the life side. I’ve said this before, but I think I made the jump (from college) because I thought I was ready and I thought I could help this team.”

Garnet Hathaway had a goal and an assist for the Flyers, the No. 3 seed from the Metropolitan Division. 

Stuart Skinner made 20 saves for the Penguins, the No. 2 seed from the Metropolitan. 

Philadelphia leads the best-of-7 series 2-0 and will head home to Xfinity Mobile Arena for Game 3 on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, SN-PIT, truTV, TNT, NBCSP, SNP, SNO, SNE, SN360, TVAS).

“There should be frustration. (We) should be frustrated,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “We just lost two games at home. And so, with frustration comes how are you going to respond? How are we going to respond? And so, I would hope every single guy in that room, the entire staff, nobody’s happy right now. Nobody should be.” 

After the Penguins managed two shots on goal in the first period, and none on three power plays, Bryan Rust came close to putting them ahead at 4:12 of the second, but he hit the right post with a spinning wrist shot off a pass from Sidney Crosby.

"I think we've been in some tough spots all year,” Crosby said. “We've always responded really well to adversity. It seems like it's brought out the best in all of us. I think that getting on the road and having a situation like this hopefully brings out the best in us again here."  

Martone then gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 13:39 with a backhand from the bottom of the left circle off a cross-ice pass from Travis Konecny that ricocheted off Penguins defenseman Ryan Shea.

“There’s not a lot of guys that can come in and make the impact that (Martone) has,” Konecny said. “Especially in the games leading up to making the playoffs, like how important those were, and for him to be able to jump in, I think it just speaks to, not his hockey ability, but to how he wants to learn.”

Hathaway made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 17:43. Owen Tippett collected a puck Skinner tried to send up the far wall, deked around Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang and set up Hathaway with a no-look pass for a snap shot from the slot.

Tippett missed wide right on a penalty shot after being hooked by Erik Karlsson at 9:45 of the third period.

Luke Glendening scored an empty-net goal at 17:55 for the 3-0 final.

“Coming in here and winning two games is tough to do,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “They’re not dead, so we have to act like they’re not dead. We’re not coming out of here on a high horse. We’re happy, but we’re going to have to adjust a few things.”

Pittsburgh was 0-for-5 on the power play with two shots on goal, falling to 0-for-7 with three shots in the series. 

“A little bit more of the same,” Karlsson said. “We don't really get in sync, and you would think that we would dictate what we want to do out there. But they're doing a good job, and we're not. That's the bottom line.”

NOTES: Martone (19 years, 176 days) is the sixth youngest player in NHL history to score in his first two postseason games, behind Don Gallinger (17 years, 341 days), Jordan Staal (18 years, 216 days), Rod Brind'Amour (18 years, 254 days), Tyler Seguin (19 years, 106 days) and Wendel Clark (19 years, 167 days in the second game of a four-game streak). ... Vladar is the second Flyers goalie to have a playoff shutout against the Penguins, following Martin Biron (28 saves in Game 5 of the 2009 conference quarterfinals). ... Hathaway’s short-handed goal was the first for Philadelphia in the playoffs since April 20, 2018, when Valtteri Filppula also scored in Pittsburgh during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round. ... Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae didn’t play because of an upper-body injury. He is day-to-day.