After struggling to score in all of their past three hockey games, the Pittsburgh Penguins finally erupted on Thursday.
And who better to do it against than their archrival?
After scoring just two goals in their past three games, the Penguins tallied six against the Philadelphia Flyers and won by a final score of 6-3 to snap their three-game losing streak and move into third place in the Metropolitan Division. They got contributions from up and down their lineup and from their power play, which ended the game with three goals.
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Justin Brazeau, Bryan Rust, Egor Chinakhov, Blake Lizotte, Sidney Crosby, and Connor Dewar were the goal-scorers for the Penguins, and Stuart Skinner was really solid throughout, stopping 30 of the 33 Flyers’ shots he faced.
The offensive eruption was a nice change of pace for the Penguins, who combined for just two goals in their last three games. But, aside from a few lapses later in the game on the Flyers’ last two goals against, they still brought the strong defensive process that has been part of their game since the holiday break.
And, on Thursday, they just had the finishing to go along with it.
“I think it’s been coming across the last few games,” Lizotte said. “Inside the room, you could feel it building. We were getting chances, and I think throughout the season you just get stretches sometimes where they don’t fall. Once one goes, they seem to all go. So, hopefully, we can keep finding the back of the net.”
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The entire game was a special teams battle, and the Penguins certainly came out on top. They took advantage of two of their first-period power plays, first, courtesy of Brazeau off a nice feed from Ben Kindel on the second unit a little more than two minutes into the game. Rust scored later in the period on the man advantage to put the Penguins up, 2-0.
And they also wasted no time in building their lead when they came out for the second period. Chinakhov – playing in his eighth game with the Penguins – took a feed from Evgeni Malkin off the rush and buried it at close range past Flyers’ goaltender Sam Ersson to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead.
However, Philadelphia responded just a minute later with a goal of their own from fourth-line center Rodrigo Abols, and they did seize quite a bit of momentum from that tally. They controlled play for most of the period up until Lizotte – with his sixth of the season and third in his last eight games – batted home a Noel Acciari chip opportunity around the net-front at the last second to put the Penguins back up by three.
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Then, early in the third, Lizotte laid a huge hit on Flyers’ forward Denver Barkey near the red line, and his teammate, Matvei Michkov, stood up for him and challenged Lizotte in a fight. Michkov ended up getting an extra minor penalty for roughing, and Crosby – as he always does – made the Flyers pay on the ensuing power play to make it 5-1.
Dewar capitalized off a defensive zone turnover by the Flyers on a pass from Tommy Novak just over a minute later to put the Penguins up, 6-1, but the Flyers started pushing back a bit again afterward. Nick Seeler picked his spot from the left circle to make it 6-2 with just under 11 minutes to go in regulation, then Michkov scored with two and a half minutes left in the game to cut the Penguins’ lead to 6-3.
But, after that, the Penguins were able to shut it down. And responding to momentum swings has been something that the Penguins have done well since the break, too.
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“I think if you look back at the history of our season, we’ve let some leads go that we shouldn’t have,” Lizotte said. “And I think it just shows the learning curve that we’ve made. In games like this, you have to control emotion, especially when momentum’s really not in your favor at the moment.
“When you’re protecting a lead – those moments within the game where it could go sour quickly – you have to find a way to change momentum. And I think we did a really good job of that tonight.”
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Here are some thoughts and observations from the Penguins’ big win Thursday:
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– Everyone has been talking about the newly extended Lizotte, and for good reason.
But I don’t think there are enough words to express how important he has been to the Penguins this season.
Not only does he kill penalties, block shots, and drill down all of the defensive details, there is just an energy and a tenaciousness about him that isn’t matched by anyone else on this team. He has the ability to shift momentum in the game with his speed, work ethic, physicality, and forechecking, and he always seems to be part of the game’s turning points and most clutch moments.
Both his goal and his hit-then-fight were important moments in the game, and that all-around ability to be a game-changer has not gone unnoticed by his teammates – not even his newest ones.
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“I mean, not just tonight, but ever since I’ve been here, you see a guy that just works hard in both areas of the ice,” Skinner said. “A guy that will do absolutely anything for the team to get us two points. He’s a fast skater, he goes into the dirty areas, he fights, scores goals.
“Honestly, a player that shows a lot of heart, and all the success that goes to him… he’s one of those guys that are very much deserving of it.”
He was huge for the Penguins Thursday, and he has been for them all season long.
– That was Chinakhov’s third goal in eight games with the Penguins. None of them have been cheapies, and two of them have come off the rush with Malkin.
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It’s safe to say that Chinakhov is fitting in nicely with the Penguins, and he is certainly building some chemistry with Malkin. But head coach Dan Muse is very impressed with the other areas of Chinakhov’s game, too – which isn’t something he necessarily knew about him as a player before coming over from Columbus.
“I don’t think he gets enough credit for the way he works away from the puck,” Muse said. “He’s done a really good job there in terms of the tracking, the getting back. He’s got some detail to his game. You watch, and he’s changing at the right time, he’s driving wide, he’s drawing a number of penalties.
“So, I think the scoring’s obvious with him, but there’s some things that I’ve learned about him since he’s been here that, maybe, I didn’t know as much but really like.”
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I’ve said it in a lot of post-game coverage, and I’ll say it again: I think this is a really good addition for the Penguins. Chinakhov is a nasty goal-scorer, and he simply needed an elite distributor to help him unleash that. But it’s not the only thing he does well.
This is a multidimensional player, and Pittsburgh could really, really have something here.
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– The Penguins’ special teams were very good Thursday, and the power play got a lot of recognition for its three goals.
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But the penalty kill has been a huge strength for this team ever since Lizotte re-entered the lineup, and they were 4-for-4 on Thursday. Since the holiday break, the Penguins have only allowed three power play goals, and they have killed 12 straight and allowed just one goal in the last 16 opportunities.
This team has been a pretty good five-on-five team when at full health. But special teams have been an x-factor in their success this season, and there’s a good chance they could spell the difference between a playoff berth and a near miss for the Penguins this season.
– As mentioned before, the Penguins have played very, very well defensively since the break. Save from a few lapses here, this is the team from October that was shutting teams down late in games when holding a lead and not giving the opposition much to work with when closing things out.
In fact, the Penguins have blown just two third-period leads – each by just one goal, and each that they ended up winning beyond regulation – since their disastrous blown four-goal lead against the Utah Mammoth on Dec. 14.
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They’re shutting opponents down late in games, and they’re responding so much better when the opposing team does score a goal or grab some momentum.
Jan 15, 2026; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers center Trevor Zegras (46) over the puck against Pittsburgh Penguins center Blake Lizotte (46) during the third period at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
– And you know what? A ton of credit has to go to the way the Penguins’ blue line has performed since the break. Because – even without their best defenseman in Erik Karlsson for the last two games – they’ve been very good.
Brett Kulak has settled in next to Kris Letang, and that pairing has been pretty solid for a few weeks now. They are being asked to play top-pairing minutes in the absence of Karlsson, and they’ve handled it well in those two games. Jack St. Ivany has stepped up to the plate since Karlsson went down, too, next to Karlsson’s regular partner in Parker Wotherspoon, who has been unbelievably solid for the Penguins the entire season.
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But even that bottom pairing of Ryan Shea and Connor Clifton have gelled in the past couple of games. Shea looks a bit more himself, and Clifton is throwing the body around and clearing the net-front like nodoby’s business right now.
They’re not giving up much in terms of high-danger opportunities and odd-man rushes, and it has certainly helped their goaltenders, too. If they keep playing with this defensive detail – and they can couple that with the scoring that this lineup is capable of – this is a legitimately good hockey team.
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– Ben Kindel has no goals in his last 15 games. He did register that assist on Brazeau’s goal, but the production hasn’t been coming for him.
But he was outstanding on Thursday. In fact, I thought he was one of the best – if not the best – player on the ice.
I’ve talked at length about Kindel, so I won’t spend a ton of time on it. But he was everywhere. He was effective on the power play. Killing penalties. Taking key faceoffs. Driving five-on-five play for his line. Making defensive plays and using his smarts and his stick to disrupt.
The details he has nailed down at his age just don’t come this easily for 18-year-olds. His all-around game is so, so advanced for his age, and it was on full display Thursday.
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The production is going to come. When it does, this kid is going to be a star. He plays like a veteran already.
– This is five straight games for the Penguins where Skinner has been excellent. He looks poised, settled in, comfortable, and confident in the crease, and he’s making some big saves for his team whenever they do happen to give up a good opportunity.
He and Silovs have done an excellent job keeping this team in every game. If they can get this level of goaltending down the stretch, this isn’t just a legitimately good team. It’s a borderline division-contender.
There is still a lot of season left. But if the Penguins can overcome another major injury and string together some wins before the Olympic break, they surely won’t be sellers at the trade deadline this season.
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