Flyers fall in Game 4, series lead cut to 3-1

PHILADELPHIA – It didn’t get to be a 30-year drought without a four-game sweep for nothing.
And now make that 31.
With the Flyers in position to take out the Pittsburgh Penguins without a loss on Saturday night, they came up short, falling by a 4-2 score at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Philadelphia, up 3-0 going into this game, could have wrapped up the best-of-seven first-round playoff series in short order but they were their own worst enemy.
They took a needless penalty, leading to Sidney Crosby’s first goal of the series, then goaltender Dan Vladar tried a reckless clear attempt and the puck wound up in his own net.
That’s the early edge the Penguins needed to get a jump on this game. Now the series goes back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Monday night.
While the Flyers still have an imposing 3-1 lead in the series, the last thing they wanted to do was give a somewhat frustrated Penguin outfit some life.
Adding to the Flyers’ annoyance: The Penguins went with backup goalie Arturs Silovs, who replaced regular starter Stuart Skinner.
While there was plenty of speculation Vladar might not be able to play in this game after getting injured late in Game 3, the goalie did take part in the morning skate and said he was ready to go.
Coach Rick Tocchet knew this one wasn’t going to be easy. Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have multiple Stanley Cup rings. They weren’t going to go quietly into that good night.
“We came out, I thought we were throwing pucks away too much,” Tocchet said. “The second half we started getting into our game. We have some adjustments to make.
“We were giving pucks back. We talked about that after Game 2. You have to move your feet. We looked sluggish tonight. We’ll have to figure that out. But I like the fight back. That’s a good hockey team over there. It’s hard to win every game.”
Down 2-0 late in the second period, Denver Barkey finally got the Flyers on the board. He set up shop in front of Silovs and was able to guide a pass from a charging Trevor Zegras into the net at 15:40.
Before that it was all Pittsburgh.
With Barkey in the penalty box, the Penguins needed just five seconds to score in the first period. Right off the faceoff, Crosby drilled a shot past Vladar at 14:24.
Silovs faced only one Philadelphia shot in the first half of the period. The Flyers finished the session with nine shots but couldn’t get anything into the net.
Vladar only had himself to blame on the second goal. He secured a puck behind the net, hesitated, then tried to poke it past forechecker Rickard Rackell. The strategy didn’t work and a diving Rackell was able to guide the puck into the net at 1:03.
“Obviously my fault,” said a sheepish-sounding Vladar. “That’s hockey. It happens to every single goalie. All you can try to do is focus on the next play. It was my bad of hitting him. In practice, you do it 20 times, 20 times it goes past him. It just is what it is. Nobody’s perfect.”
Vladar said he had no health issues, no carryover from the Game 3 injury.
In the third period, during concurrent minor penalties, Kris Letang finished off a Crosby feed to restore the two-goal margin. Later, Travis Konecny scored from the slot at 7:03 to cut Pittsburgh’s edge to 3-2.
It stayed that way until Connor Dewar hit an empty net with 56 seconds to play.
Konecny was among those who thought the Flyers could have pulled this out if they had played a slightly cleaner, more mistake-free game.
He expected the Penguins to come out desperate at the start and they did.
“Of course, you knew they were going to,” Konecny said. “I thought we were letting them play their game a little bit. So I thought we answered well in the second half of the game. You could feel us comin’. Just a little bit too late.”
Aside from his costly penalty, Barkey played a highly productive game.
“We knew we could close it out on home ice tonight, it’s in the back of your mind,” he said. “Kind of play our game, but I didn’t think we did that for 60 minutes.”
On the penalty: “I was just trying to get position. You have to be careful with your stick right now. The refs are calling a lot. You have to be careful in front of the net.”
Christian Dvorak pointed out the Flyers sort of let the Penguins play their game in the first half of the game and the Flyers came on toward the end. Maybe they can draw some momentum from that.
What has to change?
“Get in on the forecheck,” Dvorak said. “That’s one of our strengths. It took a little bit for us to get that going tonight. And we have to stay out of the box. That kind of kills momentum.”

>Strong on the road

The Flyers finished the season with 23 road wins, the fourth-highest total in team history since the NHL adopted the 82-game format in 1995-96 and the most since 2011-12.

>Short shots

The Flyers’ scratches were forward Alex Bump and defenseman Emil Andrae.