Travis Sanheim broke a 1-1 tie midway through the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers opened the Penguins schedule with a 3-2 win over Pittsburgh on Saturday night in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first-round series at PPG Paints Arena.
Sanheim took the puck from the slot after dancing around Penguins forward Elmer Söderblom, then beat Pittsburgh at a point in the game when the Flyers had already made the night feel more like a grind than a showcase. Jamie Drysdale had put Philadelphia ahead in the second period, Evgeni Malkin answered late in the period to level it for Pittsburgh, and Porter Martone later scored his first career postseason goal to make it 3-1 before Bryan Rust pulled one back with 1:01 left.
The game mattered because it was the return to the Stanley Cup playoffs for both sides, with the Flyers back for the first time since 2020 and the Penguins back for the first time since 2022. It also mattered because Pittsburgh entered the series with the league’s third-ranked offense in the regular season and still managed only 17 shots. Philadelphia, by contrast, set the tone early with 17 hits in the first period and spent much of the night making every Penguins touch uncomfortable.
That was the part Sanheim kept coming back to afterward. He said he understands the level required in the playoffs, the challenge ahead, and his job against top players, then added that his task is to play them hard, limit their time and space, and do it as best he can. The Flyers have been playing playoff-style hockey for the past month in pursuit of a postseason berth, and on Saturday it looked less like a surprise than the result of a team that had been preparing for this exact kind of game.
For Pittsburgh, the disappointment came with a blunt assessment from Erik Karlsson, who said the Flyers were better and that the Penguins did not deserve to win. Game 2 is Monday night, and after one game the series already looks set to turn on whether Philadelphia’s structure and physical play can keep smothering a more dangerous offense, or whether Crosby, Malkin and the rest of the Penguins can find enough room to change the pace.
