April 21, 2026
Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images
Porter Martone has thrived so far on the playoff stage.
Owen Tippett couldn't explain Porter Martone.
The 19-year-old rookie was just in the right place at the right time, once again, to flip in the backhand shot that gave the Philadelphia Flyers a lead they would never let go of, while completely disheartening a Pittsburgh Penguins team that was fumbling after any signs of a pulse.
"I'm honestly kinda at a loss for words," Tippett, with a mean gash on his nose from late-game tensions boiling over, said of his teammate of only a few short weeks (via NBC Sports Philadelphia). "It's pretty impressive what he's done, but I don't think any of us in here are surprised. He puts in the work, and he goes to those dirty areas.
"When you play the game the right way, you're gonna get rewarded."
Maybe it doesn't need any more explanation than that.
Martone, the rapidly ascending star, scored for the second time in as many playoff games. The Flyers, with a 3-0 shutout of the rival Penguins Monday night in Pittsburgh, took a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven, first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series. And Philadelphia, after years of waiting, is now gearing up to make for an electric Xfinity Mobile Arena back home for Game 3 on Wednesday, where its team – maybe shockingly to many – is holding all of the cards.
Two postseason games in, the Flyers have been the faster, more talented, more energetic, and more defensively disciplined team.
The Penguins, by comparison, have been slow, messy, disorderly, and might be starting to reckon with the fact that their longstanding core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang is on its last legs.
They might also be coming to grips with the realization that Martone is likely going to be a problem for them for a lot of years to come – Tippett, too.
"I mean, I've been saying it for a bit. We have the belief in the room that we can play good hockey," veteran winger Travis Konecny said after Game 2.
And maybe it doesn't need any more explanation than that.
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
Martone scored the dagger for the Flyers late into Game 1 on Saturday night, when he went streaking down the ice with the puck, stopped on a dime to shake his defender, then loaded up a shot that blew past Stuart Skinner's glove so quickly to the high shortside corner that the Pittsburgh goaltender barely even registered what happened.
Monday night in Game 2, the rookie scored the heartbreaker. The Penguins were finally putting pressure on in the second period during a scoreless game, but the Flyers got a turn and a cycle down the other way, which left Konecny all alone in front of the Penguins' net for a shot.
He ended up flubbing it, and yet the puck took an incredible bounce off of a Penguin's skate and across the crease, straight to Martone's stick as he was gliding in. He tossed the backhand shot in, the Flyers took the 1-0 lead, and the road PPG Paints Arena was deflated.
Then Tippett, with all his power, scored the backbreaker.
The Penguins were on a power play, but Tippett went sprinting in after a puck that careened in behind the Pittsburgh net and out to the half wall after Skinner relayed it.
Three Pittsburgh skaters closed in. Tippett outmuscled and stickhandled around all of them to shift direction back toward the net, with teammate Garnet Hathaway coasting in unmarked to the front.
The pass across was deceptive to Pittsburgh rookie Ben Kindel as the lone man back, and on the mark to Hathaway's stick to leave the shorthanded tap-in effortless.
"I just had to get open," Hathaway said of the highlight-reel sequence from Tippett that made it 2-0.
It didn't really need any more explanation than that.
Owen Tippett, are you kidding me pic.twitter.com/e3vvaJw4xE
— Travis Ballinghoff (@travieballin26) April 21, 2026
The Flyers have been playing breakthrough hockey for nearly two months now.
Martone jumped over from Michigan State late, but just in time nevertheless. His sharp shot, high physicality, mindfulness to be a big net-front presence, and his overall willingness to dig in and use all three were maybe the last spark the Flyers needed to fully push into the playoffs, and now has Philadelphia increasingly wondering, or even already embracing, that it could have a bright young hockey star on its hands for the first time in forever.
Tippett, meanwhile, has put his unique puzzle of speed, skill, overwhelming strength, and a booming shot all together into the most complete and consistent hockey of his career, just as the Flyers' own overall picture started fully coming together to finally bring them here.
Now, along with stifling defense and excellent goaltending from Dan Vladar, they've used it all to bury the more-experienced Penguins into a 2-0 hole, all as fans back home in Philly count down the hours to Game 3 on Wednesday night, waiting to cheer on a team that they're ready to fully believe in again, while hoping that the long-despised rivals from across the state only fall deeper down the well right in front of them.
Because Tippett has been great, Martone is meeting the moment again and again, and the Flyers have been the better, smarter, and just much more promising-looking hockey team.
And it doesn't need any more explanation than that. The belief is enough.
"I'm trying to find the right words for it," said Hathaway after Monday night, struggling after them, too. "You gotta stay even keel, too, right? Like as determined as [The Penguins] were tonight, down 1-0, it's going to be 10 times that. They're gonna be coming into a difficult place to play, and they'll be ready for it. So we can't rest on this.
"Do I love playing with this group? Yeah. Is it a group that I'm excited about? Yeah. And I think that we'll keep harping on 'How can we take it one shift at a time?'
"We'll start tomorrow, trying to get better from tonight."
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