Nick Robertson scored twice in his Pittsburgh debut and Arturs Silovs made 19 saves as the visiting Penguins demolished the Philadelphia Flyers 7-0 on Wednesday in the season opener for both teams.
Filip Hallander added a goal and two assists for Pittsburgh, which lost to Philadelphia in a six-game first-round playoff series last season. The Penguins had no problem in this one, as 14 players recorded at least one point, including Hendrix Lapierre (one goal, one assist), Kaedan Korczak (two assists) and Samuel Girard (two assists).
Dan Vladar, a standout last season in his first campaign with the Flyers, allowed all seven goals on 38 shots. Noel Acciari, who spent the past three seasons with Pittsburgh, posted a minus-3 rating in his Philadelphia debut.
Robertson opened the scoring 7:26 into the game with a nifty redirection from the right of the crease.
Later in the period, Girard found Ville Koivunen with a step behind the defense. Koivunen skated in and made a smooth deke to his backhand before slipping one through Vladar’s five hole.
Evgeni Malkin’s one-timer off a give-and-go with Lapierre made it 3-0 about five minutes into the second period. The power-play goal was the 534th career tally for the 40-year-old, who scored 19 times in 56 games a season ago.
Less than three minutes later, Lapierre found the back of the net. He sniped the puck past Vladar on the short side on a 2-on-2 rush.
Hallander made it 5-0 about three minutes later, cashing in on a scramble in front of the net.
The Penguins tacked on two more goals in the third period.
Robertson was credited with his second of the night, a short-handed tally, when his shot off the end boards caromed off Vladar’s skate and into the net. Egor Chinakhov’s deflection with 3:23 remaining capped the scoring.
–Field Level Media
