PITTSBURGH _ After a tumultuous week in which their general manager, an assistant general manager, and an assistant coach were fired, the Flyers were happy to return to the ice Saturday night and get their collective minds on hockey.
In their first meeting since they lost to Pittsburgh in last season's opening playoff round, the Flyers played with the "sandpaper" that former GM Ron Hextall thought was lacking. They played a physical game, and Wayne Simmonds even fought a player who was five inches taller and 70 pounds heavier.
Most importantly, they finally beat their bitter rivals.
Dale Weise scored the Flyers' first short-handed goal of the season to snap a 2-2 tie early in the third period, sparking a 4-2 win over the Penguins at noisy PPG Paints Arena.
Weise took a pass from Scott Laughton and scored on a breakaway with 19:09 left in the third. Andrew MacDonald (career-high three points) collected his third assist of the night on the goal.
Anthony Stolarz stopped 30 of 32 shots to register his first NHL win since Dec. 11 11, 2016, a 1-0 win in Detroit, and Jake Voracek, who was stopped on a second-period breakaway, added a late empty-net goal.
Stolarz stopped Derek Grant on a short-handed breakaway with 12:17 left, protecting the 3-2 lead.
"We knew it was going to be like this, especially how our season ended last year against these guys," Flyers right winger Travis Konecny (goal, five hits) said of the chippy, physical game. "I feel like whenever we play them, they think they have this swagger over us, so it's not going to happen anymore."
The Flyers lost all four regular-season games against Pittsburgh last season, then were eliminated by the Penguins in six playoff games.
It took the Penguins 39 seconds to take the lead. Sidney Crosby, on a two-on-one with Jake Guentzel, sent a one-timer past Stolarz for his fifth goal in the last three games. Defenseman Ivan Provorov was caught up ice, creating the odd-man rush.
A little over a minute after Crosby's goal, Simmonds tried to ignite the Flyers by challenging 6-foot-7, 255-pound defenseman Jamie Oleksiak to a fight. Simmonds (6-2, 185) got pounded early, then rallied and got in several right-hand blows but lost the decision. Simmonds went to the locker room for repairs to his bleeding face, but returned a short time later.
Seemingly inspired, the Flyers tied it at 1-1 when Konecny took a stretch pass from Robert Hagg and scored on a breakaway with 14:18 to go in the first. It was Konecny's eighth goal and his fifth in the last six games.
Pittsburgh regained the lead as Riley Sheahan streaked around Shayne Gostisbhere _ who had league-worst minus-15 on the season at that point _ and went in alone, beating Stolarz to the short side to put the Penguins ahead, 2-1, with 14:11 left in the second.
The Flyers' again answered quickly.
This time, it was Claude Giroux who scored the equalizer, knotting the score at 2-all.
Taking a perfect right-circle feed from Voracek, Giroux scored on a one-timer from deep inside the left circle for his ninth goal _ and 46th point in 45 career games against the Penguins.
The Flyers went with Stolarz for the second straight game, and he made his first career appearance against the Penguins.
How unsettling has the Flyers' goaltending been in the last few seasons?
Stolarz was the sixth different goalie the Flyers used in their last six games against Pittsburgh. The others: Alex Lyon, Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Petr Mrazek and Steve Mason.
Before the game, Simmonds was asked if he felt the team was playing to save coach Dave Hakstol's job because a new general manager may be tempted to make a change.
"You play for the crest on your jersey," Simmonds said. "Not too much else matters at this point with whatever's going on in the front office. It's not up to us. We have no bearing on that (decision) and we have to focus on being a better hockey team on the ice and making sure we're a better product."
