Penguins' shootout woes persist in loss to Flyers

King Jemison, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Mar 7, 2026

Published in Hockey

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PITTSBURGH — With the Penguins trying to cling to a playoff spot while missing their two leading scorers, Saturday’s game against the Flyers was close to a must-win.

It was Pittsburgh’s last game against a team not currently in a playoff spot for two weeks, with six tough contests in between. The Penguins were coming off two straight regulation losses.

They secured a point Saturday. But once again, they could do no better in the shootout.

Trevor Zegras scored the decisive shootout goal in the Flyers’ 4-3 victory over the Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. Pittsburgh fell to 1-9 in shootouts this season. All three Penguins attackers were stopped on their attempts.

With Evgeni Malkin (suspension) and Sidney Crosby (lower-body injury) out, the Penguins couldn’t have asked for a much better start.

Egor Chinakhov drew a penalty 1:31 into the game. The first power-play unit understandably looked lost without Crosby and Malkin, but the second unit came through.

Ville Koivunen — recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis in Malkin’s absence — fired a quick pass to Justin Brazeau, who delivered the puck to Tommy Novak in the slot. Novak’s one-timer gave the Penguins a 1-0 lead.

But Pittsburgh gave up the lead less than a minute later. Owen Tippett got lost streaking towards the net, and Zegras found him for the equalizer.

It was a poor sequence from the defensive duo of Sam Girard and Kris Letang. That pairing has struggled in their six games together.

The rest of the first period provided some quintessential Penguins-Flyers shenanigans. The teams traded penalties. Connor Clifton laid out two Flyers in the span of about two seconds. Avery Hayes slammed Cam York into the boards, prompting Hayes’ second fight in the span of a week, this time with Jamie Drysdale.

The Flyers defenseman was whistled for roughing on the play — the fifth penalty Hayes has drawn in seven NHL games.

Twice in the second period, the Penguins took the lead. They quickly allowed the Flyers to tie it each time.

The new-look top line of Chinakhov, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust contributed to both second-period tallies. Crisp passing between the linemates set up Rakell’s goal 3:38 into the period.

The Flyers answered in less than 50 seconds. It was one of several times this week that the Penguins have lost a puck battle in the corner and left a man wide open — this time Alex Bump, who beat Stuart Skinner with some traffic in front (mostly from his teammates).

The scoring flurry continued a minute later. Erik Karlsson’s heavy drive from the point, set up by Rakell and Chinakhov, found the back of the net. It was Karlsson’s second goal and fifth point in the last five games.

This time, the Penguins managed to avoid giving up an immediate equalizer. They just waited about four minutes.

Letang turned the puck over trying to hit Koivunen on a breakout. Matvei Michkov found Denver Barkey driving the net, and Barkey beat Skinner from close range at the midpoint of the game. That 3-3 score held for the final 35 minutes of hockey.

Flyers goalie Dan Vladar was penalized for interference against Karlsson in the 3-on-3 period. The Penguins could not capitalize with the extra attacker, though they controlled the puck for nearly the entire overtime.

It was over when …

Zegras, one of the best shootout scorers ever, beat Skinner for the lone shootout goal. Chinakhov was denied in his do-or-die attempt.

Stat of the game

— 1-6: Pittsburgh’s power-play success rate. The Flyers committed a lot of penalties, but the Penguins couldn’t make them pay without two of their top power-play scorers.

Around the boards

— Malkin served the first of his five-game suspension for slashing Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin on Thursday.

The Penguins recalled reigning AHL player of the month Koivunen on an emergency basis with Malkin out.

— Crosby missed his sixth consecutive game with a lower-body injury suffered at the Olympics. But he appears to be nearing a return, as he has been skating in recent days.

— In the absence of his two leading scorers, Penguins coach Dan Muse shuffled the lines. He put Chinakhov on the top line with Rakell and Rust and placed Novak between Mantha and Brazeau on the second line.

Koivunen joined Ben Kindel and Hayes on a “kid” line. The fourth line of Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte and Noel Acciari remained the same. There was certainly some shuffling throughout the game.

— Karlsson’s goal made him the 10th defenseman in NHL history to record 13 seasons of at least 40 points.

Up next

The Penguins conclude a three-game homestand against the Bruins on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. It will be their last game at PPG Paints Arena until March 21 against Winnipeg.