Pittsburgh wins Game 4 to cut Philadelphia’s series lead to 3-1 as Silovs shines in net and Crosby sets the tone. April 25, 2026.

Pittsburgh Penguins 4, Philadelphia Flyers 2 Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia, PA

Eastern Conference First Round — Game 4 | PHI leads series 3-1

The Philadelphia Flyers had a chance to close it out on home ice Saturday night. The Pittsburgh Penguins — with coach Dan Muse making the call to start Arturs Silovs in place of Stuart Skinner for the first time in the series — had other plans. Crosby scored on the power play, Rakell converted on a gritty second-chance effort, and Letang struck on a 4-on-4 to give Pittsburgh a 3-1 lead they wouldn’t relinquish. The Penguins stay alive trailing 3-1 in the series, with Game 5 headed back to Pittsburgh on Monday.

How It Happened

First Period: Pittsburgh struck first on the power play at 14:24. After Barkey was called for high-sticking, Crosby won the ensuing faceoff back to Erik Karlsson at the left point, then one-timed a return pass from the hash marks off Vladar’s glove for his first goal of the series. Silovs held firm facing nine first-period shots, and Philadelphia outshot Pittsburgh 9-6 but trailed heading to the second.

Second Period: Rakell doubled the lead at 1:03 in ugly but effective fashion — Vladar lost the puck in Rakell’s skates behind the net, and Rakell dove in front to backhand it into an open cage. “Just try to pressure the goalie and the puck ended up hitting me,” Rakell said. The Flyers pushed back hard — Sanheim hit the crossbar on a transitional rush, and Vladar gloved down a Pittsburgh point shot with 1:55 left to keep the deficit at one. Barkey battled for position at the front and redirected a Trevor Zegras centering pass at 15:40 for his first career playoff goal, cutting it to 2-1. Philadelphia had life heading to the third.

Third Period: The decisive moment came at 3:45 — after Hathaway took repeated hits to the face from Karlsson and responded with an elbow, both were penalized, setting up 4-on-4 play. Crosby pulled the puck off the boards on the left side of the Flyers zone and fed Letang, who ripped a slap shot past Vladar — Crosby setting a screen on Travis Sanheim to give Letang a clean look — at 4:27. Philadelphia answered at 7:03 when Sanheim activated in the offensive zone and Konecny received a Dvorak feed to score from the right circle, igniting the crowd and cutting it to 3-2. The Flyers pressed hard but couldn’t find the equalizer. Dvorak won the faceoff cleanly after Vladar was pulled, but Philadelphia couldn’t get a shot on net, and Dewar converted into the empty cage at 19:03 to seal it — his first career playoff goal.

Goaltending

Arturs Silovs was outstanding in his first start of the series for Pittsburgh, stopping 28 of 30 Philadelphia shots (.933 SV%) in 59:56. The former AHL Playoff MVP — who backstopped the Abbotsford Canucks to the Calder Cup championship last year — showed the poise that has defined his big-moment performances. “Tonight, with the situation we were in, and a loud building like this, I thought he was really poised and made some big saves for us,” Crosby said. Dan Vladar took the loss for Philadelphia, stopping 17 of 20 Pittsburgh shots (.850 SV%) in 58:15 — his turnover on Rakell’s second-period goal was the defining mistake of the game.

Special Teams

Pittsburgh: 1-for-3 PP | Philadelphia: 0-for-3 PP | Penalties: Pittsburgh 8 min (4 infractions), Philadelphia 18 min (5 infractions)

Three Stars

⭐ Kris Letang (PIT) — 1G, 0A ⭐⭐ Travis Konecny (PHI) — 1G, 0A ⭐⭐⭐ Sidney Crosby (PIT) — 1G, 1A

Team Statistics

Shots by Period

Scoring Summary

First Period

• 14:24 PIT — Sidney Crosby (1) (Power Play) — Assists: Erik Karlsson (2)

Second Period

• 1:03 PIT — Rickard Rakell (1) — Unassisted
• 15:40 PHI — Denver Barkey (1) — Assists: Trevor Zegras (3), Cam York (1)

Third Period

• 4:27 PIT — Kris Letang (1) — Assists: Sidney Crosby (2), Rickard Rakell (3)
• 7:03 PHI — Travis Konecny (1) — Assists: Christian Dvorak (3), Travis Sanheim (1)
• 19:03 PIT — Connor Dewar (1) (Empty Net) — Assists: Blake Lizotte (1), Noel Acciari (1)

Key Notes

• Crosby recorded his 16th career playoff goal against the Flyers, passing Wayne Gretzky (15) and Evgeni Malkin (15) for the most against Philadelphia in NHL history
• Crosby’s assist on Letang’s goal was his 68th career multipoint playoff game — third in NHL history behind Gretzky (108) and Messier (77)
• Crosby now has 204 career playoff points (72G, 172A) with Pittsburgh, passing Jari Kurri (202 with Edmonton) for third-most playoff points with a single franchise in NHL history — only Gretzky (252) and Messier (215) with Edmonton have more
• Arturs Silovs became the second goaltender in Penguins franchise history to make his Pittsburgh playoff debut in an elimination game and earn a win — following Frank Pietrangelo in Game 6 of the 1991 Division Semifinals; Silovs was AHL Playoff MVP last season with Abbotsford
• The Penguins are now 3-4 in Game 4s when trailing 3-0 in a series — all three wins have come against the Flyers (also 2012 and 1997)
• Connor Dewar scored his first career playoff goal on the empty-net insurance marker; the fourth line of Dewar, Lizotte, and Acciari had several momentum-building shifts throughout the game
• Matvei Michkov had zero shots and zero shot attempts through the first 40 minutes — quiet night for the young Flyers star with just 11:18 of ice time
• Denver Barkey and Travis Konecny each scored their first goals of the 2026 playoffs; Cam York set up the Barkey goal for his first career playoff point
• Philadelphia went 0-for-3 on the power play and took 18 penalty minutes — the Flyers’ lack of discipline was costly in a game they needed to close out
• Every Flyers defenseman except Emil Andrae (two games played) has at least one point in the series — Cam York’s assist on the Barkey goal was his first career playoff point
• Ilya Solovyov made his playoff debut for Pittsburgh with 7:33 of ice time and two hits

Up Next

Pittsburgh Penguins: Game 5 — Monday, April 28 at PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, 7:00 PM ET (ESPN, SN, TVAS, SN-PIT, NBCSP) — must win to stay alive Philadelphia Flyers: Game 5 — Monday, April 28 at PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, 7:00 PM ET — chance to advance to Round 2