The Penguins' climb to get back into a playoff position at one point seemed insurmountable. They were done. Totally written off.
Nobody bothered to tell them that, though.
The Penguins' 5-4 win over the Lightning on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena gave them 83 points in the standings, tying them with the Flyers and Islander in the standings but having the tiebreaker over the Flyers for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference. If just one of the Flyers or Islanders lose in regulation in their 7:08 p.m. games on Saturday night, the Penguins will remain in the second wild card spot by the end of the night. If both the Flyers and Islanders lose in regulation, the Penguins will move past the wild card and sit in the No. 3 spot in the Metropolitan Division.
The win over the Lightning was the latest chapter of the Penguins' surge over the last two weeks, a run that has seen them go 6-0-2, grabbing 14 of a possible 16 points in the standings. The Penguins have gotten contributions throughout the lineup over these two weeks -- including depth scoring from the bottom six and the defensemen, and some stellar play from Alex Nedeljkovic.
But on this afternoon, to complete that climb back into a playoff spot, it was the core and their big trade deadline acquisition that put them over the top. A goal from Sidney Crosby, another from Kris Letang, and a pair of goals from Evgeni Malkin got the Penguins up 4-1 through two periods. When the Lightning stormed back to tie the game in the third period, Michael Bunting got rewarded for what was undoubtedly his best game as a Penguin to score the go-ahead goal.
More to come.
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