Great balls of fire! Pens finally clinch playoff berth

Great balls of fire! Pens clinch

Pittsburgh’s playoff streak extended to nine seasons after win

Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y.

Phew, that was close for Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh Penguins, who finally clinched a playoff berth in their final game of the season.

Relief had yet to give way to excitement in the Penguins’ locker room shortly after a 2-0 win over the last-place Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

“Geez,” said goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who stopped 28 shots to earn his league-leading 10th shutout. “Other than my first couple of years, we’ve always been in there and never cut it so close in the end. It was a little bit crazy.”

Brandon Sutter scored twice and the Penguins snapped an 0-4-1 skid to secure the Eastern Conference’s remaining wild-card spot and eliminate the Boston Bruins in the process. Pittsburgh extended its postseason string to nine consecutive seasons — the NHL’s second-longest streak behind the Detroit Red Wings’ 24 — and avoided a near monumental late-season collapse.

“Yeah, when you’re hanging around and waiting to clinch and waiting and waiting, waiting, and it comes down to the last day, obviously it makes things pretty interesting,” Crosby said. “Obviously we’re happy to be in there now.”

The Penguins (43-27-12), who will face the New York Rangers in the first round, limped into the playoffs by going 4-9-2 over their final 15 games. And they also overcame a banged-up blue line that was down to five defensemen over the final week.

“There’s been a lot of sleepless night nights,” defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. “It hasn’t been easy. And I’m proud of the way we were able to close it out tonight.”

The Sabres (23-51-8) matched a franchise-low for losses for the second straight season. They were also shut out for the 14th time this year — four more than Buffalo’s previous single-season record.

“It’s been a trying year,” Buffalo coach Ted Nolan said. “I thought we tried as hard as we could. Whether the glass is half full or half empty, we did what we did with the energy we had.”

At least the Sabres kept it close in losing their sixth straight to the Penguins. In their previous five meetings, Buffalo was outscored 23-3 by Pittsburgh.

Buffalo kept the Penguins off the board until Sutter scored on their 25th shot with 5:37 left in the second period.

Accepting Blake Comeau’s pass along the end boards to the right of the net, Sutter cut to the front, a step ahead of defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen. Leaning hard on his backhand, Sutter then got a hard shot off that beat goalie Anders Lindback inside the left post.

Sutter then sealed it 8:26 into the third period with his 21st of the season, to match a single-season best. Following a turnover at the Sabres blue line, Penguins center Daniel Winnik gloved down Patric Hornqvist’s pass in the right circle. Winnik slid a pass through the middle, which Sutter swept into the open side while avoiding a last-gasp poke check by Buffalo captain Brian Gionta.

“It’s always nice to score goals, but to win is big, especially that one,” Sutter said. “We deserved a bit of a better fate. And tonight we finally got it.”

Fleury, named the team’s season MVP, doubled his previous career-best shutout total, and finished with three more than the single-season team record set by Tom Barrasso in 1997-98.