NHL playoffs: Flyers defeat Penguins to take 3-0 lead in series
PHILADELPHIA -- Trevor Zegras, Rasmus Ristolainen and Nick Seeler scored three goals on four shots in the second period in Philadelphia's first home playoff game in eight years, pushing the Flyers to the brink of a sweep of the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-2 Game 3 win on Wednesday night in their best-of-seven first-round series.
Game 4 is Saturday night in Philadelphia.
The Flyers' trio of goal scorers gave their raucous fans more reason to celebrate than just a first home playoff game since April 22, 2018, and first home playoff win since April 20, 2016, they can clinch their first playoff series win since the 2020 bubble season - and they can do it against Sidney Crosby and the Penguins.
Dan Vladar, shaken up a bit in the third with an apparent right hand or wrist injury, stopped 28 shots and again outplayed embattled Stuart Skinner in net.
Not long after Vladar was hit, Erik Karlsson scored on the power play to cut it to 3-2.
Forget the rally. Noah Cates put the finishing touches on one of the biggest Flyers' wins in the last 16 years with a power-play goal for a 4-2 lead. Owen Tippett added an empty-netter in the waning minutes.
Make room! Flyers, Penguins squeeze 11 players inside penalty box after Game 3 melee
The Flyers and Penguins put a squeeze on the penalty box -- try 11 total players cramped inside their designated punishment areas.
Both teams could have snapped a team photo after a melee broke out in the second period of their Eastern Conference first-round series.
Penguins forward Bryan Rust slammed Travis Konecny to the ice behind the net and smothered the Flyers forward in a hit that sparked all the lines to join the fray. Konecny ripped off his helmet and dropped his gloves and beckoned Rust to fight him.
Rust and Pittsburgh teammates Erik Karlsson, Samuel Girard, Connor Dewar and Ryan Shea went to the visiting box. Rust got an extra penalty that put the Flyers on the power play.
Konecny was joined by Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Matvei Michkov and Christian Dvorak in the home box. Nick Seeler joined them to make it six in there 61 seconds later when he was whistled for cross-checking, but that was after Trevor Zegras scored on the power play to tie it.
When Zegras scored, he went over to the penalty box to celebrate with his five teammates trapped inside.
Flyers fans went wild in celebration of the franchise's first home playoff game since 2018.
It's the second consecutive crowded penalty box night in the playoffs. Montreal and Tampa Bay each had all five skaters on the ice sent off at once following a similar postwhistle scrum in Canadiens-Lightning Game 2 on Tuesday.
