Over the past few seasons, the NHL’s Battle of Pennsylvania has felt more like a bummer. The Pittsburgh Penguins have been overtaken by Father Time, while the Philadelphia Flyers have finally embraced the rebuild their Keystone State rivals appear to be heading toward.
However, the start of the 2025-26 season brings some regression, especially for Sidney Crosby and company, who entered Tuesday tied for second in the league in points. However, the Flyers did a great job of containing the Penguins, holding them to single-digit field goal percentage through the first two quarters. But everything they did over the years to stop Crosby didn’t matter — the future Hall of Famer almost always found a way to frustrate the Philadelphia faithful.
He did just that with an improbable third-period equalizer that threatened to erase what was largely a game-driven night for the Flyers. Those ambitions ultimately went unfulfilled, with a chaotic overtime game ending in a 3-2 shootout for the Flyers and surprising some for Philadelphia’s fifth win in six games at home.
game review
Despite Dan Vladař’s strong start to the season, Rick Tocchet named Sam Ersson the starting goaltender, marking the 26-year-old’s first consecutive starts of the new season. However, his strong performance that helped the Flyers beat the New York Islanders in a shootout on Saturday did not carry over into the start of Tuesday’s game.
The game started with some shaky moments, including a missing stick and a frantic scramble at the gate, culminating in an ugly short-side screamer from Justin Brazeau just over 10 minutes into the game. The late-blooming power forward debuted just two seasons ago when he was just 25 years old. He already had more than half of his point total in 76 games last season, which was just a fraction of his first season as a Penguin.
The game was mostly stable in the first quarter, but the Flyers didn’t waste a good opportunity late in the game as Matt Dumba interfered with Trevor Zegras. Once again, the Flyers’ “second” unit was more of a top team in terms of visibility, with Bobby Brink scoring a power-play goal from close range to tie the game.
Pittsburgh’s power play had a chance to come back early in the second quarter with Brinker in the paint. Instead, the momentum went in the opposite direction. The Penguins’ best chance for a man advantage belonged to the Flyers’ Travis Konecny, and while he couldn’t bury it, he rushed Arturs Silovs seconds after the penalty expired. The Flyers have been looking for Konecny to step up during a long slump and score his 200th career goal to give the team the lead, and that’s certainly what they had in mind.
Philadelphia could have easily scored at least one more goal from midfield, but Silovs quickly got away from Konecny and came up with a dominant goal. He made huge forehand and backhand saves on Matvei Michkov and Tyson Foerster, plucked Owen Tippett’s wrist out of the air and kept many other chances alive. The Flyers only led by one goal through 40 minutes, keeping the Penguins within striking distance despite a 14-6 shot advantage.
All of those saves, along with a couple of great saves in the third period, allowed the Penguins to narrowly escape the tie. They scored the aforementioned Crosby goal, tying the game with a pass from below the goal line with 8:03 left in the game. The goal ignited a Pittsburgh team that finished the third period strong and earned an early penalty kick in overtime.
However, the Penguins’ power-play woes continued, and they ended up not only failing to score but also getting into the paint themselves. Foster hinted at a victory celebration with a stunning wrist shot on the ensuing 4-on-3 with 24.4 seconds left … but it was a false alarm when replays showed offside.
It was the second time this season the Flyers had scored in overtime. But unlike when Brinker gave up a goal in overtime in Raleigh only to have the Carolina Hurricanes score the game-winner seconds later, this time the Flyers got the job done. Fittingly, it was Brink’s dirty penalty goal that proved the difference in the second round, after Michkov and Evgeniy Malkin (who appeared to have taken Foster’s spot-kick) had exchanged goals.
The Flyers improved to 2-0-0 in five home games and continue Thursday against the Nashville Predators. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh just begins a four-game road trip on Tuesday and will finish its October schedule two days later with a trip to Minnesota to face the Wild.
