April 20, 2026
Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images
Pictured: Garnet Hathaway with the easy tap-in after Owen Tippett undressed the entire Pittsburgh Penguins power play.
The Philadelphia Flyers aren't simply happy to be here.
They're here to make noise, and now they're about to bring their first-round playoff series back to Xfinity Mobile Arena, and to a city that, after so many years, is ready to make a ton of it.
The Flyers shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road, 3-0, Monday night at PPG Paints Arena, to take Game 2 and a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven set along with it.
Porter Martone, the 19-year-old rookie who keeps rising to the occasion, scored again. Owen Tippett, with his powerful skating, outmuscled the entire Pittsburgh power play to set Garnet Hathaway up with a backbreaking shorthanded goal, and then, after the Flyers' defense kept jamming and pushing the Penguins to the outside while Dan Vladar made all 27 saves behind them, Luke Glendening walked in the empty-net goal to put Monday night in the bag.
All the rival Penguins could do at that point was try to rough it up and send calling cards for Game 3 before the horn sounded. But that one's coming back to Philly now, with the surging Flyers holding all the cards, and with their fans all set to remind the old Pittsburgh core of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang, and Evgeni Malkin that they won't know a moment of peace whenever there's playoff hockey in South Philadelphia.
See you Wednesday night, Philly. This one's been a long time coming.
Here's how Game 2 and a shutout effort have set the stage...
The Penguins wanted to hit back, and through the first period, it felt like the refs were giving them every opportunity to.
Tyson Foerster went to the penalty box for an early high stick.
Travis Sanheim turned up the ice for a shorthanded chance that was only broken up by Erik Karlsson's flailing stick, which took Sanheim's feet out from under him and left the officials unable to ignore it, bringing play to 4-on-4.
But then Rasmus Ristolainen used the open ice to cut in toward the Pittsburgh net and right to the front of goaltender Stuart Skinner as he froze the puck. Crosby, whose ill temper and late slashes in Game 1 reignited all of Philadelphia's disgust for him, came skating in to take a swipe at the big Flyers defenseman.
Crosby came in with a cross-check and then a reach of the arm to try and get Ristolainen in a headlock. Ristolainen answered with a glove to the helmet. Only Ristolainen was sent to the box for roughing to leave the Flyers shorthanded.
Rasmus Ristolainen takes a jab at Sidney Crosby after the whistle 😳👊 pic.twitter.com/kXBC04Kbt9
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 20, 2026
Just over three minutes later, Nick Seeler got tagged for roughing while chasing and battling after a puck against Noel Acciari, which left the Flyers down a man again, while soon after, Tippett took a stick to the face along the boards, but that was let go.
Coach Rick Tocchet was furious with the refs throughout from behind the Flyers' bench, but working in Philadelphia's favor: By the time the first was over, the Penguins came up empty on all three of their power plays and only had two registered shots on goal.
Rick Tocchet is not happy with the refs pic.twitter.com/guIyAZAe6W
— Barstool Philly (@BarstoolPhilly) April 20, 2026
The Flyers' defensive structure through the neutral zone and within their own end still left the Penguins struggling to work their way inside, in a continuation from Game 1, and in the rare spots where they did, goaltender Dan Vladar had the angles to the net cut down and the stops under control.
That trend held up for a good chunk into the second. Granted, the Flyers weren't generating much either to that point, and eventually, the scales were going to tip in one direction or the other.
The Flyers finally got a power play from a too many men on the ice call to Pittsburgh, but that amounted to nothing, and gradually, the Penguins started spending a lot more time cycling around in the Philadelphia zone.
Blocked shots, deflected passes, and an unflappable Vladar in the crease kept the game scoreless past the halfway mark of the second, all as the Penguins started to climb back up in the shot count.
Really, that was Pittsburgh's chance to get back in the series.
Then the 19-year-old Martone took the wind completely out of PPG Paints Arena's sails.
The Flyers got a cycle going with just over six minutes left in the period. Center Christian Dvorak took in the puck from the corner, then wrapped around the Pittsburgh net to slip a pass to an open Travis Konecny in front.
Konecny tried to tee up a shot on Skinner, but whiffed, yet the puck took a fortunate bounce off a Penguin skate and straight across the crease to Martone as he was gliding in.
All the rookie had to do was nudge it in off his backhand to beat a sprawling Skinner, giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead and himself his second goal in as many playoff games to only widen his spotlight on the big stage.
PORTER MARTONE SCORES HIS SECOND GOAL IN HIS SECOND #STANLEYCUP PLAYOFF GAME!!!
— NHL (@NHL) April 21, 2026
📺: @espn, @Sportsnet, & @TVASports 2 pic.twitter.com/ELQxrZlm8o
Then Tippett came in and broke the Penguins' backs.
Pittsburgh was on the power play once again from a Glendening cross-check, and even though that unit had been ineffective all night, one break would've been enough to reset the game and get the building back into it.
Tippett, though, had other ideas.
The Penguins, lazily and almost inexplicably, fumbled over themselves trying to break the puck out of their zone, as Tippett moved in to recover the puck along the wall.
Then he muscled the three nearest Pittsburgh skaters all away from the puck, shifting direction to square him back toward the net, and leaving rookie Ben Kindel in no man's land as he was split between Tippett with the puck moving in and Garnet Hathaway crashing from the other side.
Tippett faked winding up for a shot to freeze both Kindel and Skinner behind him in the crease, then fed the puck over to Hathaway for the easy tap-in of a shorthanded goal and the 2-0 lead.
TIPPETT TO HATHAWAY ON THE PENALTY KILL!
— NHL (@NHL) April 21, 2026
The @NHLFlyers take a 2-0 lead! #StanleyCup
📺: @espn, @Sportsnet, & @TVASports 2 pic.twitter.com/tbrBDYJg7U
The road arena went silent, the Flyers were celebrating in the corner, and the Penguins on the ice were left stunned from what just happened.
They looked like they were starting to fall apart again, too.
Malkin, just as notorious to the Philly Faithful for some reckless swinging of his stick over his long career, instead grabbed Ristolainen's this time and lifted it into the face of Konecny to set the Flyers up with another man advantage going into the third.
But the Penguins came out desperate and pressing. The Flyers had to buckle down, and Vladar had to come up with some big saves in crunch time.
Couturier and Glendening almost cashed in on a 2-0 rush while again shorthanded, but Skinner was able to stretch across and make a pad save to stop it.
Luke Glendening almost adds a 2nd shorthanded goal for the #Flyers.
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) April 21, 2026
Couturier and Glendening had a 2 on 0. pic.twitter.com/aISngJdWQt
Then Tippett went taking off on a breakaway, but Karlsson reached out his stick to hook him as the only means to stop the play. But the sequence still brought on a penalty shot to leave the power forward, who had already buried Pittsburgh's power play a period earlier, 1-on-1 with Skinner.
Tippett, though, came skating in and fired his shot wide right, leaving the Penguins with reason enough to keep pushing.
Owen Tippett penalty shot: ❌#Flyers pic.twitter.com/FfJZELh47v
— Flyers Nation (@FlyersNation) April 21, 2026
But for the last 10 minutes or so, as the Penguins were outshooting the Flyers 13-6 for the final frame, they were never given the room to find any meaningful answer.
They either stepped into a Flyers' skater who knocked the puck away, or stepped into a shot that Vladar already had the read on as he went on his way to making a perfect 27 out of 27 saves.
Glendening guided in the empty-netter with 2:05 left, and that was checkmate.
Scrums, whistles, and penalties piled up within the last couple of minutes as Pittsburgh's aggravation boiled over.
They had nothing else otherwise.
The Flyers, meanwhile, were making all the noise.
And now they're finally coming back to a home building that's ready to send it all over the top.
Wednesday can't get here soon enough.
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
