After a hard fought yet crushing loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday, the Philadelphia Flyers will finish off their back-to-back set against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday afternoon.
Despite the 2-1 score, the Flyers outplayed the Rangers and went toe-to-toe all day against the top team in the Eastern Conference, and hopefully they can carry some momentum from that performance into today.
Cal Petersen is expected to start in goal after Samuel Ersson started and made 22 saves on Saturday. Petersen is 2-1-0 lifetime against the Penguins in his career and this will be his first start against them as a Flyer.
The Flyers will also play today without All-Star forward and leading scorer Travis Konecny. After leaving Friday’s practice injured, Konecny missed Saturday’s game against the Rangers and was designated as day-to-day with a “minor upper-body injury” by the Flyers. Forward Olle Lycksell was recalled from AHL Lehigh Valley and will suit up today in Konecny’s place as the Flyers go back to the 12F/6D formation. Egor Zamula will be a healthy scratch.
As for the Penguins, they have lost five of their last seven contests and are barely clinging to life in the Eastern Conference playoff race. They sit nine points behind Tampa Bay for a Wild Card berth and nine points behind the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Pittsburgh did manage to defeat Montréal on Thursday, 4-1, so they should have at least some momentum entering this game and regardless of how they’ve played lately, the Flyers cannot take them lightly.
It’s the final installment of the 2023-24 edition of the Battle of Pennsylvania. Buckle up.
PHI Record: 30-21-7, 67 pts, 3rd in Metropolitan
PIT Record: 25-21-8, 58 pts, 7th in Metropolitan
When: 3:30pm ET
Where: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
Broadcast Info: TNT, Max, 93.3 WMMR
Last Game PHI: 2/24/24, 2-1 L vs. NY Rangers
Last Game PIT: 2/22/24, 4-1 W vs. Montréal
PHI Goalie: Cal Petersen (2-1-0, .890 SV%, 3.00 GAA, 0 SO)
PIT Goalie: Tristan Jarry (15-17-4, .916 SV%, 2.46 GAA, 6 SO)
PHI Projected Lineup
#74 Owen Tippett – #48 Morgan Frost – #89 Cam Atkinson
#86 Joel Farabee – #14 Sean Couturier – #71 Tyson Foerster
#27 Noah Cates – #25 Ryan Poehling – #19 Garnet Hathaway
#44 Nicolas Deslauriers – #21 Scott Laughton – #62 Olle Lycksell
#8 Cam York – #6 Travis Sanheim
#24 Nick Seeler – #26 Sean Walker
#18 Marc Staal – #9 Jamie Drysdale
#40 Cal Petersen
#33 Samuel Ersson
Scratches: #5 Egor Zamula
Injuries: #11 Travis Konecny, #55 Rasmus Ristolainen
PIT Projected Lineup
#67 Rickard Rakell – #87 Sidney Crosby – #17 Bryan Rust
#10 Drew O’Connor – #71 Evgeni Malkin – #48 Valtteri Puustinen
#19 Reilly Smith – #20 Lars Eller – #52 Emil Bemström
#43 Jansen Harkins – #55 Noel Acciari – #77 Jeff Carter
#73 Pierre-Olivier Joseph – #58 Kris Letang
#28 Marcus Pettersson – #65 Erik Karlsson
#27 Ryan Graves – #2 Chad Ruhwedel
#35 Tristan Jarry
#39 Alex Nedeljkovic
Scratches: #7 John Ludvig, #16 Matthew Phillips, #18 Jesse Puljujärvi
Injuries: #59 Jake Guentzel, #83 Matt Nieto
News and Notes
– A victory today would give the Flyers the season series advantage at 3-1-0. The last time the Flyers won a season series against Pittsburgh was the shortened 2020-21 season when they went 5-3-0 against the Penguins.
– The Flyers are 165-102-30-13 against the Penguins all-time.
– Since PPG Paints Arena opened ahead the 2010-11 season, the Flyers are 17-8-6 all-time in the building in the regular season.
– Cal Petersen is 2-1-0 with a .901 SV% and 3.01 GAA against the Penguins in his career.
– Happy 24th birthday to Flyers forward Joel Farabee!
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