Vladar stops 27 shots as Flyers top Penguins 3-0 to take commanding 2-0 lead in first-round series

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Dan Vladar stopped 27 shots, rookie Porter Martone scored for the second straight game and the Philadelphia Flyers shut out Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round series.

The 19-year-old Martone became the sixth-youngest player in NHL history to score in each of his first two playoff games when he beat Stuart Skinner deep into the second period to put Philadelphia in front. Garnet Hathaway added a short-handed goal a few minutes later, and Luke Glendening chipped in an empty-netter late in the third.

Vladar made it stand up as the red-hot Flyers, who needed a scorching finishing stretch just to reach the playoffs, frustrated the suddenly offensively challenged Penguins all night.

“He’s been like that all year for us,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said of Vladar. “Guys enjoy playing for him.”

Game 3 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh, the NHL's third-highest scoring team during a resurgent regular season, again struggled to get pucks on net against Vladar. The Penguins, who had just 17 shots in a Game 1 loss on Saturday night, vowed to come out with more jump.

While Pittsburgh controlled long swaths of the game after another slow start, including sustained pressure in the third, it could not find a way to slip the puck past Vladar.

“(We) should be frustrated, we just lost two games at home,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. "But with frustration it’s how are you going to respond. ... Nobody is happy. Nobody should be.”

The 28-year-old Vladar, who had never won a playoff game in his six-year career before this series, held firm as the Flyers headed home with momentum.

Pittsburgh shuffled its top two lines midway through the game looking for a jolt. While it created more opportunities, it did not result in more goals. The Penguins went 0 for 5 on the power play to fall to 0 for 7 with the man advantage during the series.

Stuart Skinner made 20 saves for the Penguins, including a couple of breakaways that could have broken things open, but it wasn't against the young Flyers, who seem to be gaining confidence with each passing game.

Martone, who was playing collegiately at Michigan State last month, scored his fifth goal in 10 games as a pro when a rebound off a Travis Konecny shot came right to his stick. Martone powered it into the open net to put Philadelphia in front with 6:21 to go in the second.

“I made this jump because I believed I could help this hockey team,” Martone said. "I hopped on a moving train and it’s been good ever since.”

The Flyers were on the penalty kill just over four minutes later when they doubled their lead. Owen Tippett fought off a pair of Penguins to keep the puck in the Pittsburgh zone and then fed Hathaway, who deposited it into the open net on a night the only place Philadelphia dominated was the scoreboard.

“Sometimes in the playoffs you have to win those ugly games,” Tocchet said. "It was an ugly game for us. ... Sometimes you’ve got to win games like that.”

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

Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar (80) celebrates with Porter Martone (94) after time ran out in Game 2 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Penguins' Noel Acciari (55) and Philadelphia Flyers' Matvei Michkov (39) tangle in front of the net during the first period of Game 2 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Penguins' Evgeni Malkin (71) has a shot deflected by Philadelphia Flyers' Cam York (8) in front of Flyers goaltender Dan Vladar (80) during the first period of Game 2 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby (87) checks Philadelphia Flyers' Rasmus Ristolainen (55) in front of Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner, center bottom, during the first period of Game 2 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner (74) blocks a shot by Philadelphia Flyers' Rasmus Ristolainen (55) during the first period of Game 2 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs in Pittsburgh, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Philadelphia Flyers' Garnet Hathaway celebrates after scoring during the second period of Game 2 in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, Monday, April 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

BERLIN (AP) — Scheduled work to replace a part triggered a communications outage on Germany's railway that brought all trains to a halt, stranding travelers across the country, the network operator said Wednesday as it faced criticism and questions over the embarrassing chaos.

The main railway operator, federal government-owned Deutsche Bahn, apologized for the abrupt halt in services late Tuesday, when all trains in Germany ground to a stop. Service resumed gradually about two hours later, after midnight.

Long lines formed at information desks as travelers tried to figure out how to reach their destination and where to spend the night.

Deutsche Bahn said it was offering taxi and hotel vouchers and, where possible, putting trains in place for would-be travelers to sit in while they waited. But passengers complained of a lack of information, hotel rooms were not available everywhere, and some travelers' journeys stretched through the night.

The outage was the result of a problem with the GSM-R digital communication system used for internal communication on the railway network.

Deutsche Bahn said trains were running “largely seamlessly” on Wednesday morning, though there may still be some delays.

The head of the operator's DB InfraGO infrastructure division, Philipp Nagl, said that the cause appeared to have been “the scheduled swap of a technical component.” He did not elaborate.

“We are analyzing with the highest priority how exactly this led to the fault,” Nagl said in a brief statement, adding that the company apologizes to its customers for the disruption.

The breakdown came after years of increasingly frequent complaints about train delays and service interruptions.

Deutsche Bahn is conducting thorough though disruptive overhauls of major routes after years of underinvestment in a bid to improve its performance, but any significant improvement is expected to take time.

The European Union's most populous country has a railway network totaling some 33,400 kilometers (20,750 miles) in length, with 5,400 train stations and used by an average 50,000 trains per day. DB InfraGO says that makes it Europe's biggest network.

“That all rail traffic in Germany comes to a halt because of a technical defect is a new low in already poor operating quality,” Oliver Krischer, the regional transport minister in North Rhine-Westphalia state, Germany's most populous, told dpa.

He said there need to be “emergency mechanisms that prevent such a disaster in the future. People rely on reaching their destination at least somewhat punctually by rail.”

Trains are parked outside the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers wait for a train at a platform in the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers wait for a train at a platform in the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers are on the move in the central train station in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Passengers walk through Munich Central Station to catch their trains this morning following the nationwide Deutsche Bahn service disruption Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

A passenger walks past an ICE train at Munich Central Station in Munich, Germany Wednesday, June 24, 2026, following the nationwide service disruption on the Deutsche Bahn network. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)

A commuter stretches out on a bench at Frankfurt's main station, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, after a communications system failure forced Germany's railway system to suspend train service. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)

Travelers are on the move at the main train station in Frankfurt, Germany early Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (Andreas Arnold/dpa via AP)