When there's no space left to sit in the penalty box, one player gets 11 hits and the orange-clad crowd chants obscenities at Sidney Crosby, you know you're seeing the Flyers and Penguins rivalry reignited in Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA – And on the 2,922nd day since their last home playoff game in front of fans, the Philadelphia Flyers gave the orange-clad, sellout crowd a taste of old-time hockey.
At one point, following a massive second-period scrum near the Pittsburgh net, there were five Flyers and six Penguins in the penalty box at the same time, all of which gave Philly a power play and brought back memories of the Broad Street Bullies days.
It also raised the decibel level of the already-loud Xfinity Mobile Arena.
"It got us going, got the crowd going," defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen said after the Flyers' 5-2 victory gave them a 3-0 series lead against their bitter rivals from across the state. "I feel like maybe that was one of the turning points."
Added Flyers coach Rick Tocchet: "It's nice to see that building rockin' like that. It's been a while."
Pittsburgh was holding a 1-0 lead when the 11 players went to the penalty box. Trevor Zegras scored on the subsequent power play – a one-time blast from the right circle – to tie the score. He then went to his teammates in the penalty box to celebrate.
"There were a lot of them in there," he explained.
Ristolainen quickly made it 2-1 as he whipped a right-circle shot through the legs of goalie Stuart Skinner. And defenseman Nick Seeler made it 3-1 on a point drive.
Just like that, in a span of six minutes, the Flyers went from trailing to taking control of the game.
"I liked our response," said Sean Couturier, who had a pair of assists, won 75 percent of his faceoffs and centered a valuable, hard-nosed fourth line that included Garnet Hathaway and Luke Glendening.
The Flyers had 44 hits – 11 by Owen Tippett – compared to the Penguins' 27, and that played a role in the victory. First-period hits by Couturier and Hathaway steadied the Flyers after a slow start and seemed to settle them down before they dominated the second period.
Old. Time. Hockey.
Tocchet thought the Flyers' hits "turned the game around, identity-wise."
So did the Flyers' response after Travis Konecny, one of the team's leaders, was pinned to the ice and teammates tried to come to his aid.
Just 4:33 into the second, Konecny was tackled by Bryan Rust, who then laid on top of the Flyers winger. Rust received an extra minor penalty.
Several other players then got involved in other scrums, and it took the officials several minutes to figure out who belonged in the penalty box. When the players got there, Konecny and Rust screamed at each other.
The ensuing power-play goal by Zegras evened the score, "and then the crowd went bananas," Hathaway said. "I think we'll be seeing that meme of the guys celebrating in the box together for a long time. I think we feed off that. We're a close group. There's no denying that. You see guys step up for each other. We fed off that, then we fed off the crowd.
"That's when we grabbed the momentum... and we took it, and we ran with it from there."
Even young rookies Porter Martone and Ben Kindel roughed it up at the final buzzer.
The Flyers fans, watching their first home playoff game since 2018, chanted obscenities at the Penguins and Sidney Crosby, mocked goalie Stuart Skinner – who struggled after two excellent performances to start the series – and made the building percolate with ear-piercing cheers throughout the game.
"The crowd was unbelievable," Hathaway said. "You feel the passion. You feel the excitement."
At the Olympic break, the Flyers had a 3.8 percent chance of playing in the post-season. They then finished the season on an 18-7-1 run to reach the playoffs for the first time in six years.
So the long-suffering fans finally got a chance to again experience a post-season atmosphere.
"We're happy for the city, for the fans," Couturier said. "They supported us through the ups and the downs of the last couple years. Just happy to be back in the playoffs."
Tocchet liked how his team rallied after Konecny was down on the ice, but cautioned that "we have a long way to go. The hardest one is the last one."
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