The Pittsburgh Penguins clinched the Atlantic Division title Tuesday night with a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Penguins have now won 17 of their last 19 games, which includes a 15-game winning streak that was snapped last week, and has control of the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
"It's been a priority for us to look at being tops in the division for the seeding in the playoffs," coach Dan Bylsma told ESPN after the game. "To be able to do that with eight games left in the season, I think that's a pretty big accomplishment for this team."
Pittsburgh benefited from clutch goal scoring during the final period of regulation. Beau Bennett and Evgeni Malkin scored 13 seconds apart to tie the game and give Pittsburgh a 4-3 advantage. Pascal Dupis scored during the final 0:02 of the game on a 64 ft open-net wrist shot, to go along with his two assists.
Pittsburgh was once again without the services of captain Sidney Crosby, as well as James Neal and Kris Letang. However, the Penguins still had enough firepower to hand Carolina its eight straight home loss, a franchise worst.
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