Game 9 Preview: Flyers @ Pittsburgh
Alain Vigneault's Philadelphia Flyers (5-2-1) are in western Pennsylvania to take on Mike Sullivan's Pittsburgh Penguins (3-3-2). Game time at PPG Paints Arena is 7 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 93.3 WMMR).
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 3-0 shutout victory over the winless Arizona Coyotes behind strong goaltending from Carter Hart. The game was 0-0 after two periods before a three-goal outburst in the third period from Sean Couturier (4th), Scott Laughton, and Claude Giroux (ENG, 5th).
Pittsburgh is riddled with injuries and COVID-related absences. The team is without Sidney Crosby (COVID-19 protocol), Evgeni Malkin (off-season knee surgery), Bryan Rust (lower-body injury) and, due to entering COVID protocol earlier this week, without half of its starting blueline (Brian Dumoulin, Marcus Pettersson and Chad Ruhwedel). Veteran defenseman Kris Letang just exited COVID protocol on Monday and had his first full practice on Wednesday but is considered a game-day decision to play against the Flyers.
For an in-depth game preview, see today's
Five Things on the Flyers official website.
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Phantoms Earn First Win of the Season
Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms finally got off the schneid for the 2021-22 regular season as they earned a 4-0 home win against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Wedneday night at the PPL Center.
Over the previous two games, the Phantoms had played with leads and showed improvement over the opening 40 minutes but were outplayed in third periods and ended up losing. This time around, despite getting into a lot of penalty trouble, the Phantoms held the fort. The penalty kill went 8-for-8 and Felix Sandström recorded a 25-save shut out.
Maksim Sushko (1st goal of the season), Tyson Foerster (5-on-3 power play goal, 2nd), Hayden Hodgson (2nd) and Gerry Mayhew (ENG, 4th) scored goals for the Phantoms. Morgan Frost (2a) played his best 200-foot game of the season and was especially good on the penalty kill. Both Frost and Hodgson (1g, 1a) had two-point games. German Rubtsov set up the Sushko goal early in the first period but was unable to convert on a penalty shot later in the game.
The Phantoms (1-5-2) return to action over the weekend when they play back-to-back road games against the Charlotte Checkers (3-3-1) at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday and 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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