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PITTSBURGH (AP) Evgeni Malkin made the proclamation more than two months ago Womens Niklas Hjalmarsson Jersey , minutes after the Pittsburgh Penguins put together three borderline spectacular periods against San Jose on Jan. 30 to pick up their ninth win in 12 games.”It’s like we’re back to playoffs for sure,” Malkin said.It was vintage Malkin, who for over a decade has played the blunt dressing room yin to Sidney Crosby’s ever polite yang.While predicting a playoff spot for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions isn’t exactly risky, Malkin’s promise came as the Penguins were coming out of a three-month funk in which they flip-flopped between brilliant and blah.Reminded of his guarantee on Tuesday – with a 12th straight postseason berth secured – Malkin just smiled. Yeah, maybe he was sending a message to the rest of the guys in the room that day that the malaise needed to go.”Like we talk a lot about this year, like everyone’s `Wait, like what’s going on?”’ Malkin said. ”We lost couple good players but we’re still great.”They just didn’t always play like it during the first half of the season. While doing his best to avoid using the word ”hangover,” Crosby admitted the Penguins may have suffered from a bit of selective amnesia last fall when they opened the season trying to become the first franchise in 35 years to win three straight titles.”When you play a couple seasons of important games like that, you come back and you might not have that urgency or you only remember May and June when everything is great and your team is firing on all cylinders but you don’t necessarily remember all the little things that happen,” Crosby said.The two-time MVP has been around long enough to understand that each year has its own set of unique challenges. The group that basically ran in place from October through December sort of forgot how to deal with it.”You have to go through that stuff over the course of the year and sometimes it’s not as fresh in your mind as winning is,” he said. ”So I think it took us awhile to go through that.”Things like trying to find a new identity after the departures of Chris Kunitz, Marc-Andre Fleury , Nick Bonino, Trevor Daley and Matt Cullen, all vital pieces of Pittsburgh’s 2016 and 2017 titles. Things like defenseman Justin Schultz and forwards Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust all missing significant time with injuries, reminders that – as coach Mike Sullivan likes to put it – the Penguins play a ”belligerent sport.”Sullivan knew adversity was coming when the season started. And while he didn’t panic he kept reminding his players that nothing is inevitable, not even a playoff berth for a team with the longest active streak in the NHL. There was no fiery speech telling them to get it together because none was required.”There weren’t really any words said,” Rust said. ”Everybody knew. It’s one of those things. You take a look at the standings. You take a look at how we lost a few of those games early in the year and you just, everybody kind of looked in the mirror a little bit and everybody picked up their own game.”Though the Penguins insist there was no one moment in which they snapped to, Hornqvist pointed to a 4-0 road win against the New York Islanders on Jan. 5 as game when the light started to come on.The visit to Brooklyn came just 24 hours after a humbling 4-0 home loss to Carolina. Weather issues forced the team to scramble just to get to the arena. They left with two points and a little bit of swagger.”Since then I think we’ve been playing good hockey and been improving every game and that’s the key to the season,” Hornqvist said.Having Malkin and Crosby doing Malkin and Crosby things certainly helps.Malkin is in the running for his second Hart Trophy as league MVP, his 95 points the most on the team, most of them coming during Pittsburgh’s post-New Year’s Day surge, one in which the Penguins became just the fourth defending champion since 1944 to reach the postseason after being on the outside looking in at the season’s midway point.When Malkin cooled, Crosby put together a five-game goal scoring streak, including a remarkable double-tap score against Montreal’s Carey Price and an overtime winner against New Jersey last Thursday in which he smacked his own rebound out of midair and by Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid in overtime.A win over the Canadiens last Saturday night turned Malkin’s January guarantee into a reality. Though a loss to Washington on Sunday allowed the Capitals to wrap up a third consecutive Metropolitan Division title, the Penguins aren’t particularly concerned. All three Cup parades during the Malkin-Crosby era have followed regular seasons in which the Penguins finished second in their division.All that matters to Malkin is that Pittsburgh is in the conversation. Just as the Penguins have always been since he arrived in 2007.”I will always believe my team John Moore Jersey Womens ,” Malkin said. ”I always believe this group. I see these guys every day and we’re still hungry.”— PITTSBURGH (AP) The Pittsburgh Penguins‘ quest for a three-peat is officially on.Patric Hornqvist picked up his 200th career goal and the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions clinched their 12th straight playoff berth with a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.Phil Kessel, Riley Sheahan, Conor Sheary and Carl Hagelin also scored for Pittsburgh, which dominated the largely listless Canadiens to improve to 17-1-1 in their last 19 games at PPG Paints Arena. Matt Murray finished with 24 saves for the Penguins, who swept their season series with Montreal for only the second time in franchise history.Jeff Petry and Jonathan Drouin scored for the Canadiens, who lost for the fifth time in seven games. Antti Niemi made 28 stops but Montreal couldn’t handle the league’s top-ranked power play.GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3, SHARKS 2LAS VEGAS (AP) – William Karlsson scored a short-handed goal in the third period, and the expansion Golden Knights clinched the Pacific Division title.Vegas (50-22-7) reached 50 wins in its inaugural season with its third victory in four games. San Jose (44-25-10) is second in the Pacific, four points ahead of Los Angeles.Shea Theodore and Oscar Lindberg also scored for the Golden Knights, and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 29 shots.San Jose goaltender Martin Jones made 35 saves. Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored for the Sharks.STARS 4, WILD 1DALLAS (AP) – John Klingberg scored and added to his NHL-leading assist total for defensemen, helping Dallas to the victory.Jason Spezza scored for the first time since Jan. 16 as the Stars, playing their home finale, won for just the second time in 11 games – a slide that wiped out any realistic hopes of making the playoffs.The Wild, still holding the third playoff spot in the Central Division with four games remaining, lost the second of a home-and-home set two nights after beating the Stars 5-2 in Minnesota.Wild defenseman Ryan Suter departed with a lower-body injury late in the second period. He wasn’t using his right leg as he was helped through the tunnel to the locker room.Klingberg got his career-best 56th assist on the first-period goal by Spezza.BRUINS 5, PANTHERS 1BOSTON (AP) – Jake DeBrusk scored twice in his first game in more than two weeks, and Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots to help Boston move back into first place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.David Krejci had three assists and rookie Ryan Donato had a goal and an assist for Boston, which has won four of its last five games. The Bruins have earned a point in eight straight games and 15 of their last 17.Jamie McGinn scored for Florida, which remains three points behind New Jersey in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. James Reimer stopped 17 of the 22 shots he faced before he was replaced by Roberto Luongo with 3:28 left in the second period, trailing 5-1.Luongo, the losing goalie for Vancouver in the Bruins’ 2011 Stanley Cup run, stopped all 11 shots the rest of the way.Two days after a physical battle for first place with the Tampa Bay Lighting, which the Bruins won 4-2 to take temporary possession of the top spot, Boston sent the struggling Panthers to their third straight loss and moved back into first. The Lightning had jumped ahead of the Bruins with a win at the New York Rangers on Friday night.CANUCKS 5, BLUE JACKETS 4, OTVANCOUVER Scott Wedgewood Jersey Womens , British Columbia (AP) – Alex Edler scored 1:21 into overtime to lift Vancouver to its season high-tying fourth straight win.Jussi Jokinen had a goal and two assists against his former team, and Darren Archibald, Bo Horvat and Nikolay Goldobin also scored for the Canucks, who have won five of six after a seven-game skid. Thatcher Demko stopped 26 shots in his first NHL start.Seth Jones had a goal and three assists, and Pierre-Luc Dubois, Zach Werenski and Cam Atkinson also scored for Columbus. Artemi Panarin had four assists and Joonas Korpisalo finished with 24 saves for the Blue Jackets, who are 12-1-1 in their last 14 games as they try to pass Pittsburgh for second place in the Metropolitan Division.The Blue Jackets erased a 4-1 deficit by scoring three goals in 2:37 to tie the game.JETS 3, MAPLE LEAFS 1TORONTO (AP) – Josh Morrissey and Dustin Byfuglien scored 1:10 apart in the second period as Winnipeg beat Toronto in a matchup of the only two Canadian teams headed to the playoffs.Andrew Copp had the other goal for Winnipeg, while Connor Hellebuyck stopped 28 shots.Patrick Marleau scored for Toronto, and Curtis McElhinney had 26 saves.The Maple Leafs, who won 7-2 in Winnipeg to open the season on Oct. 4, are all but assured of finishing third in the Atlantic Division. The Jets, meanwhile, look just as certain to wind up second in the Central.Toronto’s only blemish at home in more than two months coming into this game was Monday’s 3-2 loss to last-place Buffalo that snapped a 13-game winning streak at Air Canada Centre.SABRES 7, PREDATORS 4NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Sam Reinhart had a hat trick with Jack Eichel adding a career-high five assists as NHL-worst Buffalo stunned league-leading Nashville.The Sabres outshot Nashville from the start and chased goalie Pekka Rinne after he gave up six goals on 29 shots through two periods.Kyle Okposo had two goals, and Jason Pominville and Ryan O’Reilly also scored for Buffalo, and Eichel tied a franchise single-game record with his assists.P.K. Subban, Austin Watson, Kyle Turris and Nick Bonino scored for Nashville.The Sabres took control by scoring three power-play goals – two by Reinhart – on a 5-minute major after defenseman Victor Antipin was boarded by Nashville forward Scott Hartnell behind the Buffalo net at 14:09 of the second. Antipin was strapped to a backboard and taken off the ice on a stretcher.RANGERS 2, HURRICANES 1RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Ryan Sproul scored and Kevin Hayes added a short-handed goal to help New York eliminate Carolina from the playoff race.Henrik Lundqvist made 40 saves for the Rangers, who entered having lost three straight and six of seven – going 1-4-2 in that stretch – and were formally knocked out of the postseason chase earlier in the week.Jeff Skinner scored and Cam Ward made 18 saves for the Hurricanes, whose longshot playoff hopes were snuffed out and will miss out for the ninth straight year – the longest active postseason drought in the NHL. For the third consecutive season, their official elimination came in their 79th game.Lundqvist’s third victory against Carolina this season helped the Rangers finish off a sweep in the series. New York won the first three games by a combined 17-5 margin.DEVILS 4, ISLANDERS 3NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – Taylor Hall scored twice and New Jersey took a major step toward its first playoff berth since 2012.Coupled with Florida’s 5-1 loss to Boston earlier in the day Conor Sheary Jersey Womens , the Devils opened a five-point lead over the Panthers for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference and moved within a point of idle Philadelphia for the top wild card. Both teams have four games left in the regular season, one fewer than Florida.Stefan Noesen and Blake Coleman each had a goal and assist as the Devils won for the seventh time in 10 games (7-2-1). Keith Kinkaid, who has started nine of 10 games and been the mainstay in net since late January, had 27 saves, including a stop on a one-timer by Ryan Pulock with 14 seconds to play.Tanner Fritz, Anthony Beauvillier and Chris Wagner scored for the Islanders, who have lost 16 of their last 19 (3-12-4). Thomas Greiss made 31 saves in his first game since Feb. 16, when he sustained an ankle injury and went on injured reserve.COYOTES 6, BLUES 0GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Antti Raanta stopped 34 shots for his third shutout of the season and Arizona scored three goals in the second period to beat playoff-chasing St. Louis.Four of the Coyotes‘ goals came from defensemen, including Luke Schenn, who scored his first goal in his 61st game of the season. Schenn also energized a large crowd and his teammates with a powerful check of Blues forward Scottie Upshall early in the second period.Richard Panik added a goal just before the hit, and 28-win Arizona won its 10th this month.Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored a power-play goal and assisted on another second-period goal, Jakob Chychrun, Alex Goligoski and Zac Rinaldo scored, and Max Domi and Dylan Strome had three assists each for the Coyotes. Panik had an assist and Derek Stepan had two.The Blues entered 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, but ended the night tied with Colorado for the second wild-card spot in the West at 92 points through 78 games.RED WINGS 2, SENATORS 0DETROIT (AP) – Jimmy Howard stopped 31 shots for his first shutout of the season, leading Detroit to its third straight win.Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou scored to help the Red Wings get their longest winning streak since a season-high four-game stretch Dec. 29 to Jan. 5.It was Howard’s 24th career shutout and marked the ninth time Ottawa was blanked this season.Mike Condon finished with 25 saves for the Senators.FLAMES 3, OILERS 2CALGARY, Alberta (AP) – Mikael Backlund had a goal and an assist, helping Calgary snap a seven-game skid.Dougie Hamilton and Garnet Hathaway also scored during the Flames‘ three-goal first period. Michael Frolik added two assists, and Mike Smith stopped 34 shots.Hamilton’s goal was his 17th of the season, the most by a defenseman in the NHL.Anton Slepyshev and Mike Cammalleri scored for Edmonton. Cam Talbot gave up three goals on seven shots before he was pulled 15 1/2 minutes in.