Pregame
The Penguins use the same players, lines and goalie from Game 5 for Game 6.
Matvei Michkov is back in the lineup for the Flyers, who sit Garnet Hathaway. Philadelphia makes tweaks to all their forward lines and get Noah Juulsen back in the game on defense.
First period
Not the greatest
start for the Penguins, they look tentative and ice the puck a few times. Ilya Solovyov gets walked by Owen Tippett but Arturs Silovs is there for a big pad stop.
The team trade penalties, Elmer Soderblom gets interfered with for the first power play of the game going to Pittsburgh. Little happens on it. A few minutes later in what looks like an obvious make up call, Noel Acciari gets whistled for not much of a penalty to give Philadelphia a chance. They don’t muster much either.
Not a great period for the Pens, besides their goalie playing well. Perhaps most importantly at this point, they get out of it tied 0-0 and get a chance to regroup.
Second period
Pittsburgh gets a better footing in the second period, their fourth line goes to work with a long shift along the boards in the offensive zone, they sneak the Crosby line out to exploit the tired players and the Flyers ice the puck. They proceed for one of the more shithousing techniques to stall and delay the faceoff. Trevor Zegras leaves for the lockerroom when he should be on the ice. Rick Tocchet throws on his best blank face and the refs have no control on the situation. Finally they let Christian Dvorak sub in for Zegras. Soon after, the refs grab Luke Glendening for a fairly innocuous slashing for perhaps some retribution for the delay of game tactics. The Pens are bad on the power play and can’t receive the gift, though Egor Chinakhov did ring a shot off the post late in the power play.
The Pens generally look in control but fail to get a lot of quality looks. Out of no where (and a poor pinch), Michkov gets sprung on a breakaway. Silovs is there to make a massive save.
The Flyers keep pushing before the final horn of the second, Travis Konecny nearly scores off a rebound but again the leg of Silovs saves the day. Konecny throws a crosscheck at Letang late then keeps his legs together to go down like a sack of bricks on the retaliation, Letang takes the penalty at the final horn.
Somehow the game is 0-0 after 40 minutes.
Third period
The Pens are killing a full 2:00 to start the third, they get it done without too much drama
Tommy Novak gets a glorious look on a broken play after a deflection that puts the puck on his stick and Dan Vladar out of his net. Novak hesitates then tries a pass that was never going to make it through traffic.
Both teams pressure, waiting to force a mistake which sounds like an oxymoron but is about how the game settles in. Ryan Shea almost makes one by giving the puck away but Silovs reads it all the way and makes the save. On the other end, Anthony Mantha wins a puck away from Michkov but the Pens can’t find the back of the net.
The Pens look like they’re building late. Novak flings a long-range shot off the crossbar. The Crosby line stacks a shift after that with Bryan Rust almost willing it home from the crease. The storm passes without a goal.
Regulation ends the same way it starts, 0-0.
Overtime
The Pens control most of overtime, all the lines are rolling and working to get what they can. Either the Flyers defense gets in the way or Vladar does.
On a rush, Tippett drives past Shea and the puck is sitting free for Porter Martone but Arturs Silovs makes one more heroic save, dropping his stick in the scramble and the puck hits the stick. The Pens clear out of desperation and take the icing.
Unfortunately, that’s where the road ends in the 2025-26 season. Ben Kindel loses the faceoff, neither Mantha nor Soderblom do much to front the points and Cam York sends a long-range shot that has traffic in front that Silovs can’t pick up in time.
Some Thoughts
- Not much in the way of thoughts tonight. Like the Pens, we’re all tapped out for the night. Thanks for following along all season and there’s sure to be plenty more to follow as this team continues its journey through another off-season.
Well, that’s that. The Pens emptied the tank but came up the slightest bit short. Tough ending to the season, considering the dishonorable opponent at hand.
