In Pittsburgh, the Penguins’ Casey DeSmith made 31 saves in a 4-*2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
The win pushed the Pens back into the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Florida Panthers.
Rickard Rakell scored a double in the first period to give the Pens a 2-0 advantage.
His second marker was off the power play.
Pittsburgh improved to 38-29-10.
“It’s human nature to watch the scoreboard,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’re all well aware of who’s winning and who’s losing and where we stand. I just think that’s human nature. But the most important thing is when we come to the rink to play that we don’t get distracted by that stuff.
“We still have control of our own destiny here. We’ve got to make sure we maximize every opportunity.”
Bryan Rust scored in the middle frame for a 3-0 advantage to the Pens.
The Flyers dropped to 29-34-13 off their third straight loss.
“I thought we had the higher-quality chances in the game,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “I didn’t think it was out of reach when it was 3-0. I just thought we’d keep banging away. I thought we’d get to them. We certainly tried.”
in the third, the Flyers rallied with two goals to close the gap to 3-*2.
Nicolas Deslauriers and Travis Konecny scored to trim the lead to one for the Flyers.
“We just lost it for a bit there,” said Konecny. “We still played a pretty good first period and kind of got ourselves out of it. That’s our group. We just don’t give up. We just kept pushing.”
The Penguins’ Ryan Poehling added an empty-net goal with 72 seconds left on the clock for the 4-2 final.
Samuel Ersson made 27 saves in the Flyers loss.
“I don’t know what to say,” Ersson said of Rakell’s first goal. “I don’t know how you’re supposed to expect that one, but I mean, [stuff] happens. Tough bounce and you just have to find a way to battle back.”
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