Dan Vladar made 27 saves and Garnet Hathaway had a goal and an assist as the visiting Philadelphia Flyers topped the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 on Monday to take a 2-0 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
After squeaking out a 3-2 victory in Game 1, the Flyers once again outplayed the favored Penguins. Rookie Porter Martone scored for the second straight game, and Luke Glendening added an empty-net goal.
Vladar logged his first shutout since joining the Flyers last summer — and his first career blanking in the playoffs.
Stuart Skinner turned aside 20 shots for Pittsburgh, which will arrive desperate for a victory when the teams reconvene in Philadelphia for Game 3 of the best-of-seven series on Wednesday. Sidney Crosby led the Penguins with four shots but was held without a point for the second straight game.
“You got to focus on the next one. Win or lose, that’s always the approach. But given the fact that we lost two here, we’ve got to find a way to take Game 3 and get some momentum back,” Crosby said.
The Flyers committed three minor penalties in the first period but still held the Penguins to two shots in the session. Philadelphia also didn’t do much on offense, managing just five shots in the opening 20 minutes.
Philadelphia opened the scoring on Martone’s second of the playoffs with 6:21 left in the second period. Travis Konecny’s shot was blocked in front and caromed right to Martone, who deposited a backhander into a vacated net for a 1-0 lead.
Martone, 19, became the sixth-youngest player in NHL history to score a goal in each of his first two career playoff games.
Shortly thereafter, Glendening — one of the team’s top penalty-killers — was in the box when the Flyers scored a short-handed goal to make it 2-0. Owen Tippett won a puck battle along the boards, made a couple of nifty moves and slipped a pass across to Hathaway, who rammed it past a helpless Skinner.
Holding a two-goal lead, the Flyers squandered two terrific scoring opportunities down the stretch. With about 13 minutes left in the contest, Skinner stoned Glendening on a 2-on-0 short-handed breakaway. Then about three minutes later, Tippett was awarded a penalty shot when he was hooked on a breakaway, but he shot wide on the ensuing attempt.
Tippett stressed the importance of staying even-keel despite the advantage the Flyers now hold in the series. “We’re excited to get home to our fans, back home in our rink, but we can’t get too high, can’t get too low,” he said. “Obviously coming in here, to a building like this, and taking the first two games – it’s huge.”
Vladar’s highlights included a stop on Samuel Girard from point-blank range early in the third period and a flashy glove save on Evgeni Malkin’s redirection with 7 1/2 minutes to go.
Glendening’s empty-netter with 2:05 left put an exclamation point on the victory.
–Field Level Media
