Penguins clinch playoff berth with win vs. Canadiens

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 5-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.

Pittsburgh (45-28-6) is second in the Metropolitan Division, three points behind the Washington Capitals, two ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets and four ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Capitals have a game in hand on the Penguins and Blue Jackets.
The two-time defending Stanley Cup champions clinched a berth for the 12th straight season, the longest active streak in the NHL.
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Penguins highlights]
"I do think [clinching] is special because I think it's hard to make the playoffs in this league," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "There are a lot of good teams. You can look across the League and see how tight the races are and how many teams are still in it. So, the fact that we're able to clinch and solidify a playoff spot is a credit to our players.
"They're playing extremely hard. They knew going into tonight's game that if we won, we were going to earn that spot. That was our No. 1 priority."
Matt Murray made 24 saves to extend his streak without a regulation loss at home to 10 games (9-0-1), the longest of his NHL career.
Antti Niemi made 28 saves for the Canadiens (28-38-12), who lost to the Penguins for the third time in 17 days. Pittsburgh won 5-3 at Bell Centre on March 15 and 5-3 at PPG Paints Arena on March 21.
"They scored a couple on the power play and they were able to get those pucks," Niemi said. "They have a couple different plays. The last time in our home game (March 15), I got beat on a one-timer. You just have to stay ready for everything."

After Jeff Petry gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead by shooting off Evgeni Malkin and past Murray at 8:42 of the first, the Penguins scored three straight goals.
Conor Sheary tied it 1-1 at 9:41 after Riley Sheahan shot off Niemi and followed his rebound behind the net. Sheahan passed through Montreal forward Logan Shaw to Sheary, who shot past Niemi's glove for his second goal in two games.
Patric Hornqvist put the Penguins ahead 2-1 with a power-play goal 37 seconds later. Hornqvist got the rebound off a shot from Justin Schultz and backhanded it around Niemi's right pad for his 200th goal in his 646th NHL game at 10:18.
"If you don't make the playoffs, you can't win the Stanley Cup," Hornqvist said. "That's the first step in this room, to make the playoffs and now we just have to make sure we get better every single time that we come to the rink."
Carl Hagelin made it 3-1 when his shot went off Niemi's back and in from below the goal line at 14:36 before Jonathan Drouin shot over Murray's glove on a power play to cut it to 3-2 with 11 seconds remaining in the first.
Phil Kessel made it 4-2 when he redirected a pass from Sidney Crosby off Petry and through Niemi on a power play at 7:18 of the third period, and Sheahan made it 5-2 with another power-play goal at 9:07.
Pittsburgh was 3 for 5 on the power play.
"At the end of the day, our penalty kill gives up three goals," Montreal coach Claude Julien said. "If we're not going to do a job right, we're not going to pay a price, that's what's going to end up happening. We had a couple breakaways there. We had a chance to get ourselves back in the game and we weren't able to finish.
"It's the story of this season here. The chances are there. The lack of finish … dictates what you saw tonight."

Goal of the game

Hagelin's goal at 14:36 of the first period.

Save of the game

Murray's save on Paul Byron at 8:23 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Drouin's goal at 19:49 of the first period.

They said it

"We'll use these last couple games to try and fine-tune these little things and try to be ready to go for when the playoffs start." --Penguins goalie Matt Murray
"Let's keep going. We have some young guys still coming in, call-ups and all that stuff. So, [we] can't throw those four games in the garbage and just wait to go home. You want to play hockey hard. You want to play the right way and there's still something you can grab from those four games." -- Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin

Need to know

Kessel sustained an undisclosed injury shortly after Pittsburgh's fifth goal. Sullivan did not update his status and expects to have more information Sunday. Kessel has played 689 consecutive games since he sat out the first 12 of the 2009-10 season with the Toronto Maple Leafs after shoulder surgery. That is the third-longest active streak in the NHL, behind Florida Panthers defenseman Keith Yandle (710) and Toronto forward Patrick Marleau (703), and the ninth-longest in League history. … Canadiens defenseman David Schlemko, returning after missing 12 games with an upper-body injury, had two hits and two blocked shots in 17:17.

What's next

Canadiens: Host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, RDS, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Penguins: Host the Washington Capitals on Sunday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV)