Dan Vladar dominated to get Flyers to Round 2

It’s not always sunny in Philadelphia, but the Flyers shined brightest in Game 6 with a 1-0 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night, winning their first-round series and advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Flyers’ goaltender Dan Vladar was a major factor in the win, as he stopped 42 shots and earned his second shutout of the series. He posted a .937 save percentage (SV%) and a 1.61 goals against average (GAA) through six games in round one.

Read Kyle Morton’s recap of Game 6 and the first-round series

On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss Philadelphia’s overtime victory and how important Vladar was to the team’s success.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ll say it: For the bulk of that overtime, it was Pittsburgh controlling the game, and Dan Vladar stood tall, just buying time and buying time, and eventually it was a shot from the point that won the series for Philadelphia.

Carter Hutton: Credit Dan Vladar with how good he was, how solid he was. The magnitude of this game, too: You lost two straight, you’re back at home, it’s 3-2 now and you had a 3-0 lead, and you could feel the energy in Xfinity Mobile Arena, as well. There was a nervous energy to start this game.

I think Vladar was the calming factor, and to magnify it, in my personal opinion, is the fact that when you look at how the winning goal went in for Game 5. People were giving it to him about it. It was a tough goal, it was a weird bounce. But he was so good in this game.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…