Philadelphia Flyers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins: Game 5 Preview

Saturday's game presented the Philadelphia Flyers with a different result, one they have not experienced in over two weeks. The Game 4 loss was their first of the playoffs and first since April 9.

Now the series heads to Game 5, with the Pittsburgh Penguins finding some life in the series again after taking Game 4 on the road.

Game 5 is set to begin at 7 PM.

How to Watch

Time: 7 PM
Location: PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA
TV: NBC Sports Philadelphia/ESPN
Radio: 97.3 ESPN and the 97.3 ESPN Free Mobile App
Streaming: ESPN+

Projected Flyers Lines vs. Penguins

Injury & Roster Updates

Lineup Updates: The Flyers will make a couple of lineup changes for Game 5. Matvei Michkov comes out of the lineup for Alex Bump. Emil Andrae is back in the lineup for Noah Juulsen.
Starting Goalie: Dan Vladar gets the start for the Flyers. Vladar made 17 saves on 20 shots in the loss in Game 4. He is 3-1 with a 1.76 GAA and .926 save percentage in the series.
Injuries
- Nikita Grebenkin: upper-body injury, out since March 26
- Rodrigo Abols: fractured ankle, out at least two months from Jan. 21

Opponent Snapshot: Pittsburgh Penguins

Penguins Projected Lineup vs. Flyers

67 Rickard Rakell - 87 Sidney Crosby - 17 Bryan Rust
59 Egor Chinakhov - 18 Thomas Novak - 71 Evgeni Malkin
25 Elmer Soderblom - 81 Benjamin Kindel - 39 Anthony Mantha
19 Connor Dewar - 46 Blake Lizotte - 55 Noel Acciari

28 Parker Wotherspoon - 65 Erik Karlsson
49 Samuel Girard - 58 Kris Letang
5 Ryan Shea - 7 Ilya Solovyov

37 Arturs Silovs
74 Stuart Skinner

Special Teams
- Power Play: 20.0% (6th)
- Penalty Kill: 84.6% (5th)
Who’s hot?: Rickard Rakell has a goal and three assists in the series. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Erik Karlsson each have three points.
Who’s in net?: Arturs Silovs gets the start for the Penguins. Silovs made 28 saves on 30 shots in the win in Game 4.
Injuries: Joel Blomqvist and Filip Hallander remain out with injury.

Keys to the Game

Limit The Mistakes: The Penguins capitalized on multiple mistakes that you can’t make in the playoffs. For the Flyers to turn things around and finish off the series, they need to be sharper with the details.
Score First: The Flyers have allowed the first goal of the game in each of the last two games, and while they overcame that in Game 3, falling behind in this game will only energize the Pittsburgh crowd.
Special Teams: The Flyers have now allowed three goals to Pittsburgh’s power play, accounting for half of their offensive production in the series. Meanwhile, the Flyers have two power-play goals in the series, but have let a lot of opportunities pass them by.

By the Numbers

The road team has scored first in each game in the series.
The Flyers are 14-9 in Game 5 when leading the series 3-1. In series where the Flyers hold a 3-1 lead, they are 21-2.
Twelve different Flyers have scored in the series, the most among all teams in the playoffs.

Quotable

"To win you have to go through the process. I think we just wanted to win the game and forgot about the process. The wall work, getting to the net, good changes. I think we were a little average in all of those things, and average hockey is not going to win. So I think we learned the fact that we've got to play desperate. We didn't play desperate, they did, and it's a new game. It's a brand new game, brand new day, and everybody gets a clean slate." - Rick Tocchet on the Game 4 loss.

X-Factors

Travis Konecny: Konecny picked up his first goal of the series in Game 4, and the Flyers could use one of their leaders to be an impact player right away.
Erik Karlsson: The Penguins play way better when they are able to effectively move the puck, and Karlsson remains one of the best at being mobile and driving offense from the back end.

Kevin Durso is Flyers insider for 97.3 ESPN. Follow him on social media @Kevin_Durso.