Arturs Silovs stopped all 19 shots he faced, and the Pittsburgh Penguins opened their regular season with a 7-0 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Wednesday. Nick Robertson scored two goals, while Filip Hallander paced the offense with a goal and two assists.
Robertson opened the scoring 7:26 into the first period, deflecting a shot past Philadelphia goaltender Dan Vladar off assists from Kris Letang and Sidney Crosby. Ville Koivunen doubled the advantage at 15:44 of the frame with a backhand goal, assisted by Samuel Girard and Kaedan Korczak.
Pittsburgh broke the game open with three goals during the second period. Evgeni Malkin scored on a slap shot during a power play at 5:03, set up by Hendrix Lapierre and Tommy Novak. Lapierre added a goal of his own at 7:26 on a snap shot, and Hallander followed at 10:23 with an even-strength wrist shot to extend the lead to 5-0.
Robertson scored his second goal of the night shorthanded at 11:52 of the third period with Hallander earning the lone assist. Egor Chinakhov capped the scoring on a power play at 16:37 by tipping in a feed from Erik Karlsson and Rickard Rakell. Vladar took the loss for the Flyers after stopping 31 of 38 shots.
Pittsburgh finished 2-for-4 on the power play while killing off all three Philadelphia advantages. The Penguins also held a 38-19 edge in shots on goal and blocked 11 shots compared to eight for the Flyers.
The victory moves Pittsburgh to 1-0-0 on the season, while Philadelphia drops to 0-1-0 after its opener.
Both teams return to the ice on Monday, October 19. The Flyers host the Colorado Avalanche at 7:00 PM ET, and the Penguins visit the Utah Mammoth at 9:00 PM ET.
