Kris Letang has created far prettier goals.

And definitely more impactful goals.

His Stanley Cup-winning score from 2016 would check the box for each of those categories.

But the defenseman with a resume worthy of the Hockey Hall of Fame isn’t overly selective about the cosmetic appeal of how he generates offense.

Especially when it keeps his team alive in the postseason.

A bizarre and lucky goal by Letang late in the second period proved to be the deciding score in a 3-2 win for the Penguins in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG Paints Arena on Monday.

The Flyers, who opened the best-of-seven series with three consecutive wins, have seen their lead reduced to 3-2 with Game 6 looming Wednesday at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena, shortly after 7:30 p.m.

Letang scored Monday after his point shot hit several things on and off the ice — including each of goaltender Dan Vladar’s legs — and entered the cage by the narrowest of margins.

“Especially after all the looks I got in the second, I can’t believe that one goes in,” Letang said. “But I just tried to put it there. Obviously, made a crazy bounce. Sometimes, you create your own luck.”

The Penguins also largely created a barren environment for the Flyers’ attackers to operate as they limited the visitors to 20 shots.

In contrast, the Penguins were credited with 16 blocked shots, their highest such figure of the series.

“You’ve got to give them credit,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “They’re defending really hard. We’ve got to come up with some stuff here. You’ve got to fake some shots, deception. We’re just burying our heads and shooting stuff into the shinpads. You’ve got to have a little bit more creativity.”

Penguins rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs has been responsible for each of the Penguins’ wins this series.

After making his postseason debut for the club in Game 4 on Saturday in a 3-2 win, Silovs made 18 saves Monday to keep his playoff record unblemished at 2-0.

“It’s hard to win the games in (the) playoffs,” Silovs said. “So very happy about the result. And we’re just getting ready to play in (Philadelphia) for Game 6.

The odds of the Penguins pulling off a “reverse sweep” and winning the final four games of the series remain slim. Only four teams in NHL history have won a best-of-seven series after losing the first three contests.

But they don’t need to win four in a row at this juncture. The arithmetic has been reduced to two.

“The last couple games, we’ve found our stride a bit,” Penguins forward Sidney Crosby said. “We should feel good about that, but I think with any series, you’ve got to get better with every game. There’s still things we can do better, and we’ll try to build on that. But we’re playing good hockey.

“We’ve got to go in there and find a way to win again.”

The Penguins’ third line finally found a way to score after being mostly inert through the first four games of the series. Forward Elmer Soderblom opened the scoring 2:45 into regulation with his first career postseason goal.

From near the visiting penalty box, Soderblom dumped the puck into the offensive zone and behind the net. Penguins forward Anthony Mantha, who has struggled most of the series, barged in on a forecheck to knock Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen off the puck. Claiming possession, Mantha fed a pass to the left of the crease that was intended for rookie linemate Ben Kindel but was off the mark. It slid to the slot where Soderblom alertly leaned on his left knee and swept a one-timer from between the upper hashmarks past Vladar’s glove. Mantha and defenseman Parker Wotherspoon had assists.

“It was great for us to get that start, especially here at home,” Soderblom said. “It felt good to get going there.”

The theme of bottom-six scoring kept going 3:17 into the second period when Penguins fourth-liner Conor Dewar scored his second goal this postseason.

Under pressure from Penguins forward Blake Lizotte, Flyers forward Owen Tippett forced a faulty pass attempt from near Philadelphia’s right half-wall and lost it to Crosby, coming off the bench for a line change. Gloving the puck and dropping it to the ice, Crosby fed a pass to the left wing for Dewar, who advanced to the near circle and pumped a wrister over Vladar’s blocker on the near side.

The puck ricocheted out of the net so quickly that there was initially confusion whether it actually entered the cage, and some players continued to play, but officials eventually deemed the puck went in. Crosby and Lizotte logged assists.

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“That was a lot of guys’ work that added up to that one going in,” Crosby said. “Great shot by (Dewar). I was pretty confident when I saw it that it was in. You never know, but it looked pretty good from where I was.”

The Flyers responded only 12 seconds later when rookie forward Alex Bump scored in his postseason debut.

Off the ensuing faceoff, Flyers forward Noah Cates won the draw against Crosby and fed the puck back to Ristolainen. Retreating back to the defensive zone for a moment, Ristolainen fed it to Bump in the neutral zone. Racing across the ice and into the offensive zone on the right wing, Bump got a step on Wotherspoon to attack the cage. Flipping the puck from his backhand to his forehand, Bump released a wrister that found an avenue under Silovs’ left leg. Ristolainen and Cates collected assists.

“He’s been out for two weeks,” Tocchet said of Bump. “Really proud of the way he played tonight.”

Slight luck led to Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim tying the game at 15:06 of the second frame with his second goal.

Accepting a pass at the left point of the offensive zone, Sanheim advanced up the boards and flung a seemingly pedestrian wrister that glanced off the stick of Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson and fluttered between the near post and Silovs’ blocker. Ristolainen and forward Travis Konecny claimed assists.

Flat-out dumb luck allowed the Penguins to reclaim a lead at 17:12 of the second period as Letang recorded his second goal through bizarre circumstances.

Settling a puck at the right point of Philadelphia’s zone, Letang surveyed his options for a moment and fired a wrister that struck off the stick of Bump and clunked off the glass behind the cage. Vladar reached out for a half-hearted attempt to glove the puck but allowed it to hit off the glass, expecting it to deflect to the far circle. Instead, the puck bounced into Vladar’s left leg, then into his right leg before slowly crossing the threshold of the goal line as Penguins forward Rickard Rakell tumbled into the blue paint. Crosby and defenseman Ryan Shea secured assists.

Letang wasn’t a snob in evaluating the finer points of the goal.

“I mean, in the playoffs, even an empty-net goal matters,” Letang said. “It’s a good feeling. You want to help your team as best as you can, whether they go in with a perfect play or bank off the wall, doesn’t matter. They all count the same.”

While Tocchet labeled the goal as “fluky,” Silovs offered a different perspective on the matter.

“They got the deflection goal,” Silovs said. “We got a deflection goal. So, I think it evens out.”

Things were nearly even in the third period in terms of shots. That’s to say, there were only a few on both sides, with the Flyers having a slight edge, 6-4.

The Penguins were more than happy to keep the third period a low-event affair, even if they happened to put a few pucks off posts after the Flyers pulled Vladar for an extra attacker in the third period.

“I don’t think we were on our heels,” Penguins forward Bryan Rust said. “I don’t think we gave them the ice. We stayed in their face, but I thought we played smart. We played responsible.”

The Penguins understand they’ll need a repeat performance in Game 6 if they are to reach a Game 7.

And perhaps, a little bit of luck.

“It’s quite clear, the situation for us,” Crosby said. “It’s win or go home, so I think that urgency, that desperation, whatever you want to call it, I think has been brought out in everybody. It’s brought some of our best hockey because of it.

“We’ve just got to keep going here.”

Notes:

• Letang (39 years, three days) has scored game-winning goals in consecutive contests. The only Penguins players who were older than Letang to score a game-winning goal in the postseason were forwards Gary Roberts (41 years, 322 days) and Matt Cullen (39 years, 173 days).

• Penguins defensemen Connor Clifton, Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany, along with forwards Justin Brazeau and Kevin Hayes, were healthy scratches.

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• Forward Matvei Michkov, the Flyers’ third-leading scorer during the regular season with 51 points (20 goals, 31 assists) in 81 games, was a healthy scratch and replaced in the lineup by Bump. In four games this series, Michkov has no points.

• Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae returned to the lineup after missing three games due to an undisclosed injury.