PHILADELPHIA — So much about the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2025-26 season was about defying expectations.
Few — externally — anticipated the Penguins would contend for anything other than a lottery selection in the NHL Draft this summer. Yet, they managed to remain competitive all season to reach the playoffs and even earned home-ice advantage in the first round.
And there wasn’t a surplus of hope that battle-weary veterans such as Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin — all of whom are bumping their heads against 40 — would be capable of driving this organization back to its winning ways.
But they defiantly and stubbornly achieved those endeavors.
In the end, there just wasn’t enough left for them to accomplish what few other teams have.
After dropping the first three games of a first-round series, the Penguins were unable to emerge from a desolate, hopeless pit of despair from which even light is unable to escape — or however one might prefer to describe the Xfinity Mobile Arena — and lost to the Philadelphia Flyers, 1-0, in overtime of Game 6 on Wednesday.
Defenseman Cam York’s goal at 17 minutes, 32 seconds of the extra period was the difference in the staring contest of a game.
Only four teams in NHL history have overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven series.
The result gave the Flyers a 4-2 series win — setting up a meeting with the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round — and brought the Penguins’ unexpectedly buoyant season to an abrupt halt.
Now, the Penguins enter an offseason with considerable questions, most notably, whether they will retain franchise forward Evgeni Malkin, a pending unrestricted free agent who turns 40 in July.
Rookie goaltender Arturs Silovs, who recorded each of the Penguins’ wins this series after being inserted into the lineup starting with Game 4, unofficially made 31 saves on 32 shots in Game 6 as his record fell to 2-1.
Neither team was able to score in the opening period. Much of that was thanks to Silovs, who offered a reasonable impression of Marc-Andre Fleury with a handful of strong saves or other sequences to prevent goals, such as a toe saves on Owen Tippett at the 4:36 mark, a poke check against his former Barrie Colts teammate Tyson Foerster and a denial of rookie forward Porter Martone on a one-timer from the left circle during a power-play sequence at 15:12.
“We’re always trying to make his (Silovs’) job a little bit easier,” Crosby said Monday. “When we haven’t, he’s made some great saves and showed a lot of poise.”
The Penguins power-play continued to sputter, going 0 for 2. Though it generated a healthy amount of shots, none went into the net. Their greatest chance to score came at 6:49 of the second frame when forward Egor Chinakhov’s wrister clunked off the left post.
Silovs’ exploits continued at 15:25 of the second period when he denied Flyers forward Matvei Michkov on a breakaway, batting a wrister away with his glove. A denial of Flyers forward Travis Konecny on a rebound scramble at the 19:34 mark kept the game scoreless.
The Flyers were granted a marvelous opportunity at the end of the second period after Letang was assessed a minor penalty for roughing after he socked Konecny’s face with his right fist, sending the vexing Flyers antagonist sprawling to the ice. But a resolute effort by the Penguins’ penalty killers — forwards Noel Acciari, Connor Dewar, Blake Lizotte and Bryan Rust, as well as defensemen Sam Girard, Erik Karlsson, Ryan Shea and Parker Wotherspoon — limited the Flyers to a single shot during the power-play sequence to open the third period.
A flamboyant glove save by Silovs on a far-side wrister from the right circle by Michkov at 9:28 of the third frame maintained the stalemate. Then a wrister by Noah Cates from the slot at the 12:50 mark met a similar fate.
Late in regulation, Rust had a determined effort above the crease, but his wrister was rejected by Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar’s left skate at 16:22 of the third.
Penguins third-liners Anthony Mantha and Ben Kindel had marvelous chances roughly midway through the overtime period at the 10:21 mark, but Vladar and a handful of teammates formed a phalanx of bodies in the blue paint to deny their shot attempts.
In overtime, York struck with his first goal of the postseason.
From near the right point of the offensive zone, York lobbed a wrister toward the cage and beat Silovs’ blocker on the far side. Michkov and Cates had assists.
Vladar finished with 42 saves and boosted his postseason mark to 4-2 with his second shutout of the series.
Note: Penguins rookie goaltender Joel Blomqvist was recalled from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Wednesday to serve as an emergency backup should the need arise. … Penguins defensemen Connor Clifton, Ryan Graves and Jack St. Ivany, as well as forwards Justin Brazeau and Kevin Hayes, were healthy scratches. … Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway, a presence in the first five games of the series, was a healthy scratch in Game 6. … Former Penguins forward Garrett Wilson was also a healthy scratch for the Flyers.