Musings: PHI 5, PIT 2 (Round 1, Game 3)

The Penguins got the start they wanted in Game 3, firing a bunch of shots, drawing a power play, and converting to take a 1-0 lead.

But the game completely changed in Philadelphia’s favor after a melee in the second period. From there, the Flyers scored three unanswered goals, and ended up winning the game 5-2 to take a 3-0 series lead.

“The game turned into a bit of a WWE match in the second period. They fed off that, and they were able to capitalize,” Bryan Rust said. “We know what they’re about. We know what to expect. We’ve just got to do a better job of managing those emotions.”

"You can call it what you want, but they obviously won that battle,” Erik Karlsson said. “They came on top, and we find a way to battle ourselves back at the end.”

There had been 4-on-4 play to start the middle frame, with Sidney Crosby serving the remainder of an embellishment call he received after being high sticked by Garnet Hathaway while the teams lined up for a faceoff.

“We don't have a single embellishment all year. Sidney Crosby doesn't have an embellishment in 21 seasons,” Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse said. “So, stick’s in his face. They take both of them. I disagree on that strongly. Not one. Not one for our team all season. So, we didn't come into the series to start now. Our guys have done a good job with that. And Sid doesn't embellish.”

Then, after Kris Letang and Travis Konecny were given unsportsmanlike conduct penalties 1:39 in, Karlsson was called for tripping. Once Karlsson served his time, he joined play in the Penguins defensive zone. Right after Stuart Skinner made a couple of stops, Konecny elbowed Rust in the face. He did not like that, understandably so.

“I kind of locked him up. Took him to the group. He tried to kick me. Threw a couple of punches back and forth,” Rust said.

The teams came together, and the referees took a long time to sort everything out. They ended up assessing roughing penalties to everyone that was on the ice, regardless of their involvement, cramming everyone into their respective penalty boxes. Rust somehow ended up with two roughing penalties, which gave Philadelphia a power play after all of their antics.

Following the game, Karlsson still didn’t fully understand what had happened there, saying he had never seen anything like it in his 17 NHL seasons. Crosby felt the same.

"It kind of a turned into a bit of a circus there. Not sure why they decided to put five guys in the box on each end,” Crosby said. “Yeah, I felt like that kind of changed the momentum. It took a long time.”

“Everyone was just sitting around for what felt like forever,” Skinner said. “I don't remember waiting that long for a puck drop, maybe ever.”

Forty-five seconds into the ensuing man-advantage, Trevor Zegras evened the score. The already fired-up crowd, experiencing playoff hockey for the first time since 2020, went into the stratosphere.

“An unfortunate penalty and a power-play goal against, it hurts,” Karlsson said. “Three games in you can say that they're winning those battles. They're getting the calls with them. That's the way it is sometimes.

“It's up to us in here to realize that, hold our composure, and understand that fighting is not always an element that means that you're tough. You can do other things as well. We haven't done a good enough job of that, in making sure that type of energy also benefits us. That's obviously something that we've learned the hard way now."

Zegras’ goal came at the 5:18 mark, and 9:06 in, Rasmus Ristolainen beat Skinner clean through the five-hole to give Philadelphia the lead.

“I, obviously, really don't like my second goal against,” Skinner said. “Kind of gave them some momentum, then they were able to get a third, and then being down two just kind of puts us in a catch-up game. So, mistakes happen. I thought we battled. We battled all night.”

Less than two minutes after that, the Flyers found a third goal, with Nick Seeler’s point shot finding its way through a screen.

“I was able to catch the last little bit of the release, so I knew it was going to my glove side,” Skinner said. “Looking at the review, I feel like it just kind of went right over the left shoulder. So, yeah, I mean, it was a tough one, but I'll see what I can do next time to make the save.”

While Karlsson gave the Penguins another power-play goal to cut the deficit to 3-2 just under midway through the third, the Flyers found another power-play goal of their own before icing the win with an empty-netter.

During Skinner’s first run to the Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton in 2024, they battled back from a 3-0 series deficit to Florida and forced a Game 7.

“You know it's possible,” Skinner said. “You know, statistics are fun to look at. But doesn't mean they're always right. What really helped me in my experience was it kind of just frees you up. You don't really have anything to lose.

“We got the bodies in here. We got a resilient group. I can say that over and over and over again, but we've proven it, we've shown it. This is the group that can definitely come back from this deficit. I certainly believe that.”

Game 4 won’t be played until Saturday at 8 PM, “so it gives us the time to kind of do a bit more soul searching and figure it out,” Rust said. “We don’t get these opportunities very often to get in the playoffs and do something special. We’ve got to recognize that.”

Karlsson agreed.

“We're going to have to embrace and understand that being in this situation, even though we're down 3-0, is still a lot of fun, and we would have paid a lot of money to stand here today back in October and say this is where we were going to be,” he said. “We've just got to realize that an understand that we're a good hockey team here. We've got a great opportunity."