Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist Saturday as the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins stayed alive with a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Rickard Rakell also scored a goal and set up another for Pittsburgh, which had been outscored 11-4 while dropping the first three games of the series. Penguins coach Dan Muse opted to start Arturs Silovs in net instead of Stuart Skinner, and Silovs responded with 28 saves in a crisp performance.
“I thought he played great. Big saves,” Muse said of Silovs. ” … I’ve got a lot of confidence in both guys. I’m really happy for him. … He made sure that he was prepared. When his name was called, he was ready. Great by him.”
Denver Barkey and Travis Konecny scored for Philadelphia, which will have another chance to win the best-of-seven series Monday when the teams reconvene for Game 5 in Pittsburgh. Dan Vladar, playing with a right arm injury, turned aside 17 shots for the Flyers.
“Nothing’s changing for us. Still being positive,” Vladar said. “They’re a really good team. It’s not easy to win four in a row against a team like that. We’ve got to fight here.”
Pittsburgh opened the scoring with 5:36 left in the first period on a creative setup by Erik Karlsson. Five seconds into a power play, Karlsson’s feed from behind set up Crosby’s smooth one-timer that skimmed off Vladar and into the net for a 1-0 advantage.
Crosby’s 72nd career postseason goal was the only tally of the first period, but the Penguins made it 2-0 just 1:03 into the second. Vladar turned it over behind the net to Rakell, who dove into the crease to swat the puck in before the Flyers’ netminder could recover.
Philadelphia got on the board with 4:20 left in the second period on Barkey’s first career playoff goal. The 20-year-old got position on Karlsson in the crease and Trevor Zegras put it right on his stick for a tap-in tally.
Travis Sanheim hit the post shortly thereafter, leaving Philadelphia facing a 2-1 deficit heading into the third.
The Penguins extended their lead to 3-1 on Kris Letang’s goal 4:27 into the final session. Crosby won a battle along the boards and kicked the puck to his longtime teammate, who skated in with plenty of room and blasted a slap shot past Vladar.
The Flyers got back within a goal on Konecny’s one-timer with 12:57 left, but Connor Dewar’s empty-netter with just under a minute remaining ended the hosts’ late comeback hopes.
Silovs’ best saves included a clutch stop on Zegras near the end of the first period and a pad save on Tyson Foerster’s partial breakaway with about six minutes left in the second.
–Field Level Media
