PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and his future Hall of Fame teammates returned to the playoffs.

So did the Philadelphia Flyers, who have been playing playoff-style hockey for the past month during their desperate pursuit of a postseason berth and looked every bit the part in a 3-2 victory on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.

Travis Sanheim broke a 1-1 tie midway through the third period, dancing around Elmer Söderblom before firing a shot from the slot past Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner.

The Flyers controlled the play early and often with a bruising style of hockey that clearly impacted the Penguins, starting the game by unleashing 17 hits in the first period.

Skinner, who was outstanding all evening, stopped a series of Grade-A looks early in the second period to keep the score even. Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale finally beat him, with some help from a Sam Girard screen, to put Philadelphia ahead.

An Evgeni Malkin goal late in the second period gave the Penguins life and temporarily energized the building, but with the way this game went, they never had a chance. The Flyers put on a defensive clinic and finally started capitalizing on the Penguins’ many mistakes.

Sanheim broke the tie, and rookie Porter Martone scored his first career postseason goal late in the third to make it 3-1. A Bryan Rust goal for the Penguins made it 3-2 late in the game, but Pittsburgh ran out of time to find the equalizer.

Game 2 of the series will be played on Monday night.

Sanheim leads way on both ends

Sanheim scored a highlight-reel goal midway through the third period, but the veteran defenseman was a force on the blue line all night, getting involved physically as much as he has all season. Sanheim keyed a remarkable defensive performance from the Flyers against the NHL’s third-ranked offense in the regular season, holding the Penguins to just 17 shots. Sanheim’s partner, Rasmus Ristolainen — playing in the first playoff game of his 13-year career — also dialed up the physicality, drilling Rust just 20 seconds into the first period.

Classic Malkin

The full Evgeni Malkin experience was on display in this one.

Malkin was out of control at times in the first period, as the playoffs’ energy brought out his ornery side. He face-washed players behind play, had words with the Flyers bench and took himself out of the action on a couple of occasions by looking for hits. Malkin was also guilty of a couple of terrible giveaways, one of which led to a Philadelphia breakaway.

Malkin has been participating in the Stanley Cup playoffs for two decades, yet he looked unable to control his emotions for most of the night.

Of course, in classic Malkin fashion, he then evened the score late in the second period on a shot from the right circle, sending the sellout crowd at PPG Paints Arena into a frenzy.

This story will be updated.