Flyers Miss Chance to Sweep, Penguins Take Game 4

The Philadelphia Flyers lost Game 4 of their opening round series of the Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday.

A rowdy crowd in South Philadelphia packed the building early on a Saturday afternoon. The red hot Flyers had a chance to finish a sweep against Sidney Crosby and the arch-rival Penguins. The celebration will have to wait at least one more game.

Pittsburgh continued to control the puck consistently, as they did for stretches of the first three games in the series. The Flyers, conversely, weren't able to stifle them in the neutral zone as effectively or keep shots against Dan Vladar to the outside of the zone.

Crosby started the scoring with a power-play goal in the first period. His shot off the faceoff and an additional pass came only five seconds into Pittsburgh's first man advantage. The Flyers struggled early to beat goaltender Arturs Silovs, who started his first game in place of Stuart Skinner in Game 3.

The Penguins took control of the pace again early in the second. Rickard Rakell chased down a puck on the forecheck just over a minute into the period. He caught Vladar too far out of the crease and put the Penguins up 2-0. The Philadelphia power play, the 32nd-ranked unit in the NHL during the regular season, struggled with the man advantage while the home crowd grew anxious.

Denver Barkey reignited the sea of orange with his first career playoff goal with under five minutes remaining in the second period. The Flyers were on the board with a chance to close the series in the third.

After Garnet Hathaway and Erik Karlsson went to the penalty box with coincidental minors early in the third period, Kris Letang took advantage of the open 4-on-4 ice to put the Penguins up 3-1. Crosby and Rakell assisted Letang's tally in the veteran defenseman's 153rd career playoff game.

While Travis Konecny brought the Flyers back within one goal, the Penguins shielded off a comeback in the final minutes of regulation. Connor Dewar added an empty-net goal to give Pittsburgh a 4-2 win.

After two calendar years past without the Flyers winning four consecutive regular-season games, they won their final three on the 82-game schedule and their first three of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The streak finally came to an end, and it cost them the chance for their first sweep since 1995.

Silovs stood tall between the pipes, stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced.

Rick Tocchet upheld the positivity from Philadelphia's ability to take the commanding 3-0 series lead. The Flyers had contained Crosby and the Pittsburgh attack during the first three games, holding the future Hall of Famer to just one assist. The two-point effort in Game 4 announced Crosby as a threat to turn the momentum of the series.

While the Penguins dominated puck possession early in the game, the Flyers regained a better pace around the midway point.

Konecny – characteristically – found himself in the midst of some scrums after the whistles had blown. He scored his first goal of the series and helped drive Philadelphia's comeback attempt in the third period. He spoke after the game about a desperate Penguins team pushing back in the face of elimination.

The Flyers will travel back across the Pennsylvania Turnpike to face the Penguins in Game 5 on Monday, April 27 at 7pm.

While long-time listeners know where to tune their radios to hear Tim Saunders and Todd Fedoruk, they also have the option to stream live on 975thefanatic.com and the 97.5 The Fanatic App. Even Alexa will turn on the Flyers with a simple "Play 97.5 The Fanatic" command.

If you're looking for pregame chatter, Bill Colarulo and Ricky Bottalico have spearheaded the Flyers talk on Unfiltered from 2pm-6pm on weekdays. Jason Myrtetus and Brian Smith anchor the pregame, intermission, and postgame coverage with appearances from former Flyers defenseman Chris Therien.

Follow live sights and sounds from Flyers games at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Instagram, Twitter/X, BlueSky, and Facebook.