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Penguins/Flyers Recap: Pens can’t capitalize on late chances, fall in shootout

· Yahoo Sports

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 07: Alex Bump #20 of the Philadelphia Flyers moves the puck against Ben Kindel #81 of the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 7, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images

Pregame

There’s no Evgeni Malkin (suspension) or Sidney Crosby (injury) so the Penguins are working with this lineup today.

First period

Good start for the Penguins, the Flyers take the first penalty about 90 seconds into the game and then about 90 seconds later a pretty passing play between Justin Brazeau to Tommy Novak leads to an opening goal.

Philadelphia is able to respond less than a minute later, Avery Hayes tries to clear the zone but isn’t quite on the same page with Ville Koivunen, the turnover gets down to Trevor Zegras. Zegras makes a nice pass over to Owen Tippett who has the time and space to beat Stuart Skinner with a shot. 1-1.

Hayes finishes a big time hit on Cam York behind the net. Jamie Drysdale takes offense to it, not much comes out of the fight where both are off-balance. The Pens get a power play out of the sequence but are unable to score.

Shots are 8-2 PIT after one period; a fight, some nice hits, some goals, a nice Penguin/Flyer game to start.

Second period

Pittsburgh scores in the second period, Egor Chinakhov feeds Rickard Rakell, who steps into a wrister from the top of the circles that ends up in the back of the net in part thanks to the Bryan Rust center lane drive. 2-1 Pens.

The Flyers find another answer quickly, Ben Kindel tries to bump a puck back to Connor Clifton but it gets turned over deep in the Pens’ zone. It ends up going to Alex Bump, who is able to score in his first career NHL game by settling a rolling puck and firing by Stuart Skinner. 2-2.

It takes another minute for the Penguins to respond to that. Rakell wins an offensive zone faceoff and Chinakhov plays the puck back to Erik Karlsson. Dan Vladar has a clean lane to see the shot, but it sails through his blocker side anyways. 3-2 Pens.

Philadelphia is able to tie the game once again, another Penguin turnover results in a nice passing sequence for Denver Barkey to flick into the net. 3-3 game.

Kris Letang’s rough period continues, he allows Travis Sanehim to skate right through him and then has to slash at him from behind to help deny a scoring chance. The Flyers get their second power play of the game out of it, they come up empty.

There are only 25 total shots in the game after 40 minutes (15-10 for PIT) but there have been six total goals, three per team.

Third period

The Pens are the better team at the start, Chinakhov gets a great chance that just misses the net, as does a Novak tip attempt on a Karlsson point shot. Rakell flashes and forces a Flyer to take a penalty to alter a scoring chance to send Pittsburgh to their fourth power play of the game but they don’t manage even a shot on goal.

The Flyers then get a few chances but don’t score. Rakell draws a second power play in the period by taking a stick up high for a big chance with just 6:40 to play in the game. It gets a ton of zone time but is mostly stagnant and the puck remains to the outside.

Quiet period, each team records four SOG a piece, neither comes particularly close to breaking the tie during regulation.

Overtime

Rakell-Rust-Karlsson start out the 3v3 for the Pens. Pittsburgh got the puck back but Novak looked like he got hurt in the corner. The Flyers have a 3-on-2 the other way and Trevor Zegras’s pass through the crease gets inadvertently blocked away from the open net by his own teammate.

Vladar makes a stop on Chinakhov but then steps out of his crease and puts a pick on Karlsson. Can’t do that, refs penalize him and Zegras slams a stick to the ice in frustration of his goalie’s mistake.

4v3 power play with 2:09 to go, Skinner wisely heads to the bench for an “equipment issue” to serve as an impromptu, uncharged timeout for the Pens to get ready. Karlsson does send a shot off the outside of the post at one point, but all things considered a tough miss.

Shootout

Anthony Mantha is the first one up, he swoops in slowly and shoots right into Vladar’s leg pads.

Matvei Michkov goes first for the Flyers, similarly his low shot is stopped by the legs of Skinner.

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Rakell is the second shooter for the Pens, his shot finds the post but ricochets out.

The dangerous Trevor Zegras is up next, he dances in then picks a corner, making it look easy on the goal.

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Chinakhov has to score to keep the game alive, he doesn’t.

Some thoughts

  • We’ve been coming back to the difficulty for the forwards to produce 5v5 goals lately without Sidney Crosby around (they only have five 5v5 goals from a forward in the last six games), it was huge for Rakell to get on the board in the second period. It’s almost like a bonus these days when that happens, tough to live like that indefinitely but hopefully Crosby’s eventual return will help boost that area.
  • The power play went 1/6 won’t kill yearly percentage but doesn’t really like in a good flow, especially the first group. That’s partially to be expected with no Crosby and now no Evgeni Malkin. It’s not always going to be pretty, getting as much as they can out of it is absolutely crucial within the game —since as mentioned above— it’s been a struggle for the forwards at even strength so they need players like Brazeau and Novak to produce goals in whatever way they can.
  • Pens fall to 1-9 on the shootout, more of the same where they can’t find a goal at all. But the problem isn’t the shootout in this one, the problem was letting this game get to the shootout in the first place. Philadelphia only had five total SOG in the third period + OT, basically doing nothing out there. That’s a disappointment to let a game drag on so far — especially with the late power play in OT. The game is right there for the taking for the Pens, they simply were unable to reach out and grab it.
  • On all the Flyers goals, the Penguins had the puck in their defensive zone less than five seconds before the goal was scored. That’s got to be frustrating for the coaches. On a pair of goals it looked like Kindel was caught in space and Koivunen was either weak on the puck or half a beat too slow to gain a clearance. Kris Letang making mistakes all over the place didn’t help either. It happens with young players, but it’s a lesson to be a little more on the details or learn that the puck ends up in your own net mighty quickly at this level.
  • There was an adjustment made in that department for the start of the third period; Kindel was put on a line with Mantha/Brazeau (a line from earlier in the season) and Novak moved in to play with Koivunen/Hayes.
  • Two assist game for Chinakhov, who seamlessly fit in with his new linemates of the day. Nice to see him continue his productive ways apart from Malkin.
  • Great game from Rakell, he actually won 45% of his 21 faceoffs which is legitimately a very positive increase. A goal, an assist (due to a faceoff win) and he was a beast at taking the puck off Flyers in the 3v3. One of his best games in a long time.
  • Today was the last PIT/PHI game of the year, and I don’t know, March 7th and Game No. 62 is too early in the season to not have any more Pens/Flyers games. Kinda a bummer.
  • The Pens went 2-0-2 against the Flyers this season, which in NHL math is as good as three wins.

It’s going to be a struggle for Pittsburgh to claw out any and every point that they can without Crosby and Malkin. and now move to 2-2-2 in the six games post-Olympics without their captain. Staying .500 will help keep the afloat, though it would be nice to see them dig deep and get some sort of result at home against the Bruins tomorrow. Easier said than done with that opponent.

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