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Bobby Brink, Philadelphia Flyers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Flyers Outlast Penguins in Chaotic Shootout Victory

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Andrew McGuinness | Last updated Oct 28, 2025 9:37 PM ET

Over the last few seasons, the NHL’s Battle of Pennsylvania has felt more like a bummer. The Pittsburgh Penguins have been overtaken by Father Time, while the Philadelphia Flyers finally embraced the rebuild that their Keystone State rivals appear to be heading toward.

However, the start of the 2025-26 season has offered a bit of a throwback, especially for Sidney Crosby and company, who entered Tuesday tied for the second-most points in the league. Yet, the Flyers did a stellar job of containing the Penguins, holding them to single-digit shots in the first two periods. But it’s rarely mattered what they’ve done over the years to stop Crosby – the future Hall of Famer has almost always found a way to frustrate the Philadelphia faithful.

His improbable third-period equalizer did just that, threatening to erase a night largely full of play-driving dominance from the Flyers. Those ambitions went unfulfilled ultimately, as a haywire extra session ended in a 3-2 Flyers shootout victory, giving Philadelphia its fifth win in six tries on home ice and some momentum toward surprising some as well.

Game Recap

Despite the strong play of Dan Vladař to start the season, Rick Tocchet named Sam Ersson his starting goaltender, giving the 26-year-old consecutive starts for the first time in the young season. However, his strong form that helped the Flyers secure a shootout victory over the New York Islanders on Saturday didn’t carry into the start of Tuesday’s contest.

A few early shaky moments, including a lost stick and wild goal-mouth scramble, culminated in an ugly short-side squeaker by Justin Brazeau just over 10 minutes in. The late-blooming power forward who made his debut just two seasons ago at 25 years old. He is already over halfway to his point total from 76 games last season in just a fraction of the action in his first season as a Penguin.

No off-season acquisition by any team has more goals (6) or points (12) than the @penguins Justin Brazeau. https://t.co/xXW1ITKsWE pic.twitter.com/kTva6Xnu8D
— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) October 28, 2025

The first period largely settled down from there, but the Flyers didn’t waste a big opportunity late in the period when Matt Dumba interfered with Trevor Zegras. Once again, the Flyers’ “second” unit in terms of name recognition played more like a top group, with Bobby Brink chopping in a power-play goal from close range to level the score.

Bobby Brink, Philadelphia Flyers (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Pittsburgh’s power play had a chance to answer early in the second period with Brink in the box. Instead, the momentum went the other way. The best chance of the Penguins’ man advantage belonged to the Flyers’ Travis Konecny, and while he couldn’t bury this one, he sniped on Arturs Silovs on the rush just a few seconds after the penalty clock expired. The Flyers have been looking for Konecny to step up in the midst of an extended slump, and scoring his 200th career goal to give the team the lead is certainly what they had in mind.

Philadelphia easily could’ve wound up with at least another goal in the middle period, but Silovs quickly shook off Konecny’s goal and turned in a dominant effort. He made tremendous forehand-backhand saves on Matvei Michkov and Tyson Foerster, plucked an Owen Tippett wrister from the slot out of the air, and stayed with a bevy of other chances. Despite a 14-6 shots advantage, the Flyers only led by a goal through 40 minutes, keeping the Penguins within striking distance.

All of those saves, and a few more great ones in the third period, kept the Penguins a fluky bounce away from equalizing. And they got on the aforementioned Crosby goal, knotting the score with just 8:03 remaining in regulation on a pass from below the goal line. The goal sparked Pittsburgh, who finished the third period on a strong note and drew a penalty early in overtime.

However, the Penguins’ power play woes continued, and they wound up not only failing to score but going to the box themselves. With 24.4 seconds remaining, Foerster cued the victory celebration with a blazing wrist shot from the slot on the ensuing 4-on-3…only for it to be a false alarm when replay showed the entry was offside.

It was the second time the Flyers had an overtime goal called back this season. But unlike when Brink lost an overtime goal in Raleigh only for the Carolina Hurricanes to score the winner seconds later, the Flyers finished the job this time. Fittingly, it was Brink’s filthy shootout goal that proved the difference after Michkov and Evgeni Malkin (who took the penalty Foerster appeared to score on) traded goals in the second round.

The Flyers improved to 2-0-0 on this five-game homestand, which continues Thursday against the Nashville Predators. Pittsburgh, meanwhile, only began a four-game road swing on Tuesday and will finish its October slate two days from now with a trip to Minnesota to face the Wild.