PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Monday night to force a Game 6 in their Eastern Conference first-round series, and now the next game is suddenly the one that will decide whether Pittsburgh’s season continues. Game 6 is set for Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
Sidney Crosby said the situation has sharpened the edge for a Penguins team that had been staring at elimination. “It’s win or go home, so I think that urgency, that desperation, whatever you want to call it, I think is brought out in everybody,” he said after the win. Pittsburgh was one loss away from a sixth straight playoff-series defeat before it rallied to take the last two games after dropping the first three in the best-of-7 series.
Kris Letang delivered the deciding goal in both victories, scoring the go-ahead winner in Saturday’s 4-2 win at 4:27 of the third period and then breaking a 2-2 tie Monday with a point shot at 17:12 of the second period. The 39-year-old defenseman said the margin for error has been tiny. “It’s pretty simple, every single play on the ice matters, whether it’s a puck battle or a blocked shot, or whatever it is,” Letang said. “You have to focus shift-by-shift, making sure you win the sequence you’re on the ice (for). You try to do it over and over.”
Crosby has also found his game at the right time. He had one assist in the first three games and four points in the past two. The Penguins captain said the group has handled the pressure well, adding that “we’ve done a great job of handling adversity.”
The stakes reach beyond one series. Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Letang have spent 20 seasons together and won three Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh, but the roster is also in a fragile place. Crosby and Letang are under contract beyond this season, while Malkin is in the final season of a four-year, $24.4 million deal he signed July 12, 2022. On Friday, after turning 39, Malkin said, “I hope it’s not over,” and added that he wants to remain with the team and retire in Pittsburgh.
That history is part of what makes Wednesday’s flyers game tonight feel bigger than a single elimination game. The Penguins last won a playoff series in the 2018 first round against the Flyers in six games, and they are trying to avoid a sixth consecutive postseason series loss. For one more night, though, they have at least given themselves the chance to keep their old core alive a little longer.
