from Dave Molinari of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

They trail the third-place New York Islanders by two points in the Metropolitan Division and lead Ottawa, which is ninth in the conference, by one point.

The Penguins’ magic number for clinching a playoff berth is three points; they still have four on the table, with a home game against the Islanders at 7:08 p.m. Friday and a visit Saturday to Buffalo, N.Y.

“Through all the crap we’ve been through the last five weeks – whether it was times we deserved to win and couldn’t score or just didn’t deserve to win or played really bad – the season is still in our hands,” defenseman Rob Scuderi said.

Whether they will be over their come-from-ahead loss to the Senators by the time New York visits Consol Energy Center remains to be seen.

“It’s going to take a little time,” Fleury said. “We could have clinched, made it easy on ourselves.”

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