NHL: Penguins into play-offs

Pittsburgh Penguins celebrate Chris Kunitz’s opening goal

Pittsburgh Penguins clinched a Stanley Cup play-off place after third period goals from Chris Kunitz and Beau Bennett gave them a 2-1 win over Columbus Blue Jackets.

The match exploded into life in the third period when Kunitz opened the scoring with nine minutes remaining.

Having waited so long for a goal, the crowd were then treated to another 47 seconds later when Bennett breached the Blue Jackets’ goal again, and although James Wisniewski’s powerplay goal with just over four minutes set up a tense finale, the Penguins held on for victory.

A goal and two assists from Clarke MacArthur helped Ottawa Senators to a 5-3 victory over Chicago Blackhawks, who are still looking for the point they need to guarantee their participation in the play-offs.

Erik Condra, Cody Ceci, Milan Michalek and Kyle Turris also netted for the Senators, for whom Craig Anderson made 46 saves on his first game back from injury, only conceding to Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and Brent Seabrook.

Vincent Lecavalier, Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds were all on the scoresheet as Philadelphia Flyers earned a 4-2 triumph over Toronto Maple Leafs, whose goals from James van Riemsdyk and Dave Bolland were not enough to stop them from crashing to a seventh straight defeat.

Andrew Ference scored just the third goal of his season in the fourth minute of overtime as Edmonton Oilers ended a three-game losing run with a surprise 4-3 win over Anaheim Ducks.

Ryan Garbutt, Colton Sceviour and Trevor Daley all had a goal and an assist as Dallas Stars crushed Nashville Predators 7-3, while Joe Colborne, Mark Giordano, Kevin Westgarth and Mike Cammalleri scored for Calgary Flames, who edged out New York Rangers 4-3.