Crosby and Letang strike as the Penguins stave off a sweep with a 4-2 Game 4 win over Flyers

“It's only one,” Crosby said. “But I think it gives us some life. That looked more like our game.”

Rickard Rakell also scored, and Connor Dewar sealed the win with a late empty-netter for the Penguins. Penguins coach Dan Muse made the right call with the season on the line to bench starting goalie Stuart Skinner in favor of Arturs Silovs, who responded with 25 saves.

“I thought he played great," Muse said. “Big saves. I got a lot of confidence in both guys.”

The 38-year-old Crosby, a career-long foil for the Flyers, not only scored his first goal of the series, but he also set a savvy screen in the third period on defenseman Travis Sanheim that allowed Letang to have a clean look when he ripped his first goal of the series past Dan Vladar for a 3-1 lead.

The goal was crucial after Travis Konecny scored to make it 3-2 and ignite the “Let's go Flyers!” chants that had largely been dormant with the Flyers down early.

The Penguins received a solid effort from Silovs in the net after Skinner was ineffective with three losses and an .873 save percentage. Silovs, who went 19-12-8 this season, made his 11th career playoff start; the previous 10 came with Vancouver in 2023-24 when it was coached by Rick Tocchet.

Tocchet worked wonders with the Flyers in his first season on the bench and it was his fiery postgame speech after an overtime win in March that sparked an R-rated rallying cry.

The Flyers winked at the unprintable battle cry and gave away Game 4 T-shirts to every fan that read: “Puck Everybody.”

Crosby said, not tonight.

Crosby scored on a one-timer against Vladar only 5 seconds into a power play late in the first period for a 1-0 lead.

Vladar, voted the Bobby Clarke team MVP, stayed in the lineup after he suffered an unspecified arm injury in Game 3. Vladar took off both days of the series break and showed no sign of any physical discomfort.

Vladar, incredulously, let a mental gaffe cost the Flyers a goal only 63 seconds into the second period when he misplayed the puck behind the net. Well out of place, an aggressive Rakell jostled the puck free and poked in an empty-netter for the 2-0 lead for Pittsburgh’s first multigoal lead of the series.

“Nobody's perfect,” Vladar said.

Denver Barkey deflected Trevor Zegras’ shot past Silvos that cut it to 2-1 with 4:20 left in the second period. Barkey and Zegras are roommates — and jelled just as well as linemates.

They can now mull over what went wrong on the plane ride back to Pittsburgh. The Flyers won three straight games seven times this season but hadn’t won four straight games since February 2024.

“I like the fight back,” Tocchet said. "That’s a good hockey team over there. It’s hard to win every game.”

NHL playoff history is still against Crosby and the Penguins. Only four teams that trailed 3-0 in a seven-game series have come all the way back to win — the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1980 New York Islanders, 2010 Philadelphia Flyers and 2014 Los Angeles Kings.

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl