The Pens won their 2nd in a row, and 6th in a row on home ice, this afternoon in a 5-0 win over the Boston Bruins. The win improves the Pens record to 43-23-10 for 96 points, tying them with NJ for the Atlantic Division lead, for the second time in two days, but NJ retains a game in hand over the Penguins.
The Pens jumped out to three penalty kills early in the first period, but scored on 3 of 3 powerplay chances in the 2nd half of the period, on goals by Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby and Gary Roberts. They scored the three on a scant 1:14 of powerplay time.
The Pens Ryan Malone scored shorthanded in the first two minutes of the 2nd period to extend the lead to 4-0. Sidney Crosby added his 2nd of the game, and 34th of the season on even strength in the 3rd, just after NBC had cut away nationally from the game. (This viewer was temporarily in territory still able to see it, having just attended the game the day before, the 2-1 win over Atlanta - although the DVR at home would have been stuck with the DC area NBC feed, which did switch over to the Rangers-Islanders feed)
For the day, Crosby was 2+1, Roberts 1+2, Gonchar 0+2, Malkin and Malone 1+0, and Armstrong, Christensen, Eaton and Whitney each 0+1. Malkin's opening goal gave him 6 game-winning goals on the season, retaking sole possession of the rookie lead from Colorado's Peter Stastny. Crosby's 3 points gives him 111 on the season, now 7 points up on San Jose's Joe Thornton with 6 games remaining each.
The win reduces the Pens magic number to clinch a playoff spot (8th or better) to 3 points with 6 games left, although the number is the same to clinch the 6th spot or better, and is but 4 points to clinch the 5th seed or better.
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