The Flyers’ roller-coaster ride of a season, which featured both encouraging and maddening stages, came to a screeching halt Sunday.
Blame a porous defense and the team’s failure to win on home ice.
Blame an offense that, with the Flyers trailing by just a goal, had no shots in the first 11-plus minutes of the third period.
But mostly, blame Pittsburgh winger Jake Guentzel, who scored four goals to power the Penguins to a closer-than-it-looks 8-5 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
Pittsburgh won the series, four games to two, and will face the Columbus-Washington winner in the conference semifinals.