PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 22: Noel Acciari #55 of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Trevor Zegras #46 of the Philadelphia Flyers battle for the puck off the first period faceoff in Game Three of the First Round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Xfinity Mobile Arena on April 22, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Who: Pittsburgh Penguins (0-3) @ Philadelphia Flyers (3-0)

When: 8:00 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Locally broadcast on Sportsnet Pittsburgh and NBC Sports Philadelphia, nationally on TBS and TruTV, streaming on HBO Max

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Penguins need to win tonight to force Game 5, which would take place Monday in Pittsburgh at a time yet to be determined.

Opponent Track: The Flyers are up 3-0 after outscoring the Pens by a combined score of 11-4. They’re riding a six-game win streak dating back to the end of the regular season.

Hidden Stat: Teams that gain a 3-0 lead in an NHL playoff series have gone on to win 209 out of 213 times.

Hidden Stat II: Stuart Skinner is two years removed from coming close to a historic reverse sweep with the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers had fallen into an 0-3 hole to the Florida Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final when he backstopped the team to three straight wins and forced a Game 7.

Getting to know the Flyers

Projected lines (from Thursday’s practice)

FORWARDS

Tyson Foerster – Trevor Zegras – Owen Tippett

Travis Konecny – Christian Dvorak – Porter Martone

Denver Barkey – Noah Cates – Matvei Michkov

Luke Glendening – Sean Couturier – Garnet Hathaway

DEFENSEMEN

Travis Sanheim / Rasmus Ristolainen

Cam York / Jamie Drysdale

Nick Seeler / Noah Juulsen

Goalies: Dan Vladar (?) and Samuel Ersson

Potential scratches: Garrett Wilson, Carl Grundstrom, Alex Bump, Emil Andrae

Injured Reserve: Rodrigo Abols (fractured ankle), Nikita Grebenkin (upper body)

Goaltending questions

The biggest Game 4 question for the Flyers will be who is starting in net.

Rick Tocchet said Thursday that Dan Vladar is “a little banged up.” The Flyers goaltender had what Tocchet described as “maintenance days” on both Thursday and Friday, and he’s considered a game-time decision heading into Game 4.

"Another maintenance day for him, two days off is going to help him. … We'll see how he is tomorrow."

– Rick Tocchet on Dan Vladar's status a day before Saturday's Game 4
— Jordan Hall (@JHallNBCS) April 24, 2026

Vladar was in visible discomfort after taking contact from Bryan Rust in the third quarter of Wednesday’s Game 3. He at times appeared to be limited in his movements after that play.

Dan Vladar is in some discomfort following this play on the Penguins power play

He stayed in between the pipes for the Flyers afterwards pic.twitter.com/vCduzS0m10
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 23, 2026

If Vladar is unable to play Saturday, the Flyers will turn back to Samuel Ersson. Ersson has started just one game over the last few weeks, and it was the Flyers’ regular-season finale after they’d already clinched their playoff spot.

Ersson’s overall numbers for the season (.870 SV%, 3.12 GAA) aren’t great, but he picked up his game after the Olympic break in February (.912 SV% and 1.8 GAA in nine games since then, per Hockey Reference).

SAMUEL ERSSON WITH AN INCREDIBLE STOP! 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/Xhz91wpqJJ
— NHL (@NHL) March 30, 2026

If Vladar is hurting, the Flyers have enough cushion with their three-game series lead to see if Ersson can build on that momentum in Game 4.

“I’m not really worried if he had to play,” Tocchet said about Ersson Friday, per NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman. “He’s locked in. Even in practice. If his number is called, he’ll be ready to go.”

And now for the Pens

Projected lines (from Friday’s practice)

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin

Elmer Soderblom – Ben Kindel – Anthony Mantha

Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari

DEFENSEMEN

Parker Wotherspoon / Erik Karlsson

Sam Girard / Kris Letang

Ryan Shea / Ilya Solovyov

Goalies: Stuart Skinner and Arturs Silovs

Potential Scratches: Justin Brazeau, Kevin Hayes, Ryan Graves, Jack St. Ivany, Connor Clifton

IR: Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones (season-ending shoulder surgery)

Chinakhov is back on a line with Malkin, reuniting what’s been a solid combo from the regular season.

Malkin, on Chinakhov: "We play, like, 10 or 15 games together (when he got here). He’s a great player. I try helping him tomorrow, hopefully we score, and just play simple. Give him chance to shoot. He has great speed, great shot. Just play together. Stay close." https://t.co/j3QGUxd6RQ
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) April 24, 2026

It looks like Elmer Soderblom is drawing back into the lineup and Justin Brazeau is back out, based on Friday’s practice lines.
Another change saw Ilya Solovyov slotting in on the bottom defense pairing alongside Ryan Shea in place of Connor Clifton.

The Penguins’ top power-play unit scored during a drill and all five skaters gathered in the crease for a mock celebration standing over Stuart Skinner.

A fairly loose atmosphere considering the circumstances. pic.twitter.com/90eBjTq6Cb
— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) April 24, 2026

Sidney Crosby: "I think being in this position, you can't look too far ahead. Just got to look at what's in front of you, and that's tomorrow, and making sure we put our best game on the ice."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) April 24, 2026

Evgeni Malkin: "I just play my game tomorrow, and I hope it's not over and we're back to Pittsburgh, because we want to play in front of our fans, too. They deserve (for us to) play at home."
— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) April 24, 2026

The Pens’ goalscoring through three postseason games have been limited to Erik Karlsson, Bryan Rust and Evgeni Malkin (2). They’ll hope that list gets longer in Game 4.
The Penguins have controlled play for parts of this series, including late in Game 2 and early in Game 3. This team has yet to maintain that level of control for an entire playoff game. Whether or not Dan Muse and his players can figure out how to change that will determine whether the season ends tonight.
Part of those changes will involve avoiding retaliatory penalties. The Penguins acknowledged the scrums around the midway point of Game 3 seemingly energized the home team. Avoiding a repeat of that brawl, which swung the momentum of Wednesday’s loss, could be key to the Penguins finding a way to win for the first time this series.

Filip Hallander

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