PHILADELPHIA — Facing elimination in their first-round playoff series, the Pittsburgh Penguins are scheduled to start rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs in Game 4 against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Saturday.
Coach Dan Muse announced Silovs’ status following an optional morning skate. This will be Silovs’ postseason debut for the Penguins.
Silovs will replace Stuart Skinner, who has started the first three games of the series.
During the regular season, Silovs appeared in 39 games and posted a 19-12-8 record, a 3.07 goals-against average, an .887 save percentage and two shutouts.
The Flyers lead the best-of-seven series, 3-0.
Notes:
• Before this postseason, 213 best-of-seven series have seen a team race out to a 3-0 advantage. Only four have lost those series.
• Those who attended the Penguins’ optional morning skate included:
Forwards – Justin Brazeau, Egor Chinakhov, Kevin Hayes, Blake Lizotte, Ben Kindel, Elmer Soderblom
Defensemen – Connor Clifton, Sam Girard, Ryan Graves, Ryan Shea, Ilya Solovyov, Jack St. Ivany
Goaltender – Skinner
• Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar is scheduled to start Game 4. Through the first three games of the series, Vladar has a 3-0 record, a 1.33 goals-against average, an .946 save percentage and one shutout.
• The Flyers’ lines and pairings during their morning skate were:
71 Tyson Foerster – 46 Trevor Zegras – 74 Owen Tippett
11 Travis Konecny – 22 Christian Dvorak – 94 Porter Martone
52 Denver Barkey – 27 Noah Cates – 39 Matvei Michkov
41 Luke Glendening – 14 Sean Couturier – 19 Garnet Hathaway
6 Travis Sanheim – 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
8 Cam York – 9 Jamie Drysdale
24 Nick Seeler – 47 Noah Juulsen
• The scheduled referees are Furman South (No. 13) and Jean Hebert (No. 15), while the linespersons are Ryan Daisy (No. 81) and Kyle Flemington (No. 55). The standby officials are referee Francis Charron (No. 6) and linesman Tommy Hughes (No. 65).