The Pittsburgh Penguins will try to stave off elimination again on Wednesday.
The Pittsburgh Penguins have crawled back into their first-round series against the Philadelphia Flyers, but will likely play their hardest game to date on Wednesday.
Wednesday's Game 6 will take place in Philadelphia, giving the Flyers a chance to close out the series for a third time. They had chances to sweep the Penguins and win the series in five games, but the Penguins dug deep, found more ways around the Flyers' trap, and played great defense.
The Penguins will have to do all of that again on Wednesday and potentially get contributions from players who haven't scored in this series yet, including Egor Chinakhov. Chinakhov was one of their best scorers in the second half of the regular season and has gotten some chances in this series, but has missed the net on most of them.
Anthony Mantha finally came alive in Game 5 with a great primary assist on Elmer Soderblom's goal in the first period, but still hasn't scored in this series. If one/both of Mantha and Chinakhov can score on Wednesday, it would go a long way towards ensuring that the Penguins play again on Saturday.
The power play has also been very quiet in this series and it's time for that to change. This is a unit that can flip the series if it gets back to basics. The zone entries need to be cleaner, the passing needs to be crisp, and there needs to be more of a shoot-first mentality.
The Penguins are set to go with the same lines and pairs for Game 6. Arturs Silovs will also start in goal again.
Here's a look at the projected lineup:
Forwards
Rakell-Crosby-Rust
Chinakhov-Novak-Malkin
Soderblom-Kindel-Mantha
Dewar-Lizotte-Acciari
Defensive pairs
Wotherspoon-Karlsson
Girard-Letang
Shea-Solovyov
Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh, TNT, truTV, and HBO Max. Fans can also listen to the game on 105.9 'The X.'
Bookmark THN - Pittsburgh Penguins on your Google News tab to follow the latest Penguins news, roster moves, player features, and more!