The Pittsburgh Penguins, still without the injured Sidney Crosby, booked their place in the NHL playoffs with a strong defensive performance.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves, 16 in the first period, and the visiting Penguins clinched their invitation to Lord Stanley's party with a 2-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

"That's always nice," defenseman Hal Gill said of making the playoffs. "But I don't think we were that concerned about it. We were more looking for first place."

By beating New Jersey for the second time in four nights, the Penguins opened a four-point lead over them in the Atlantic Division standings. They now trail Montreal by just one point for the Eastern Conference lead.

Crosby may return for Thursday's game against the New York Islanders. He has missed 28 of the last 31 games with an ankle sprain.

Pittsburgh's Ryan Malone claimed a powerplay goal 5:18 into the game against New Jersey and that was it until Marian Hossa scored into an empty net after Martin Brodeur was replaced by an extra attacker.

"We knew it was going to be a tight-checking game," said Pittsburgh coach Michel Therrien. "The guys responded really well."

The Devils thought they had tied the game in the second period when Sheldon Brookbank's powerplay shot eluded Fleury. But the effort was ruled out because the referees decided New Jersey's Arron Asham kept Fleury from the puck.

The Boston Bruins pounded the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2 to halt a three-game losing skid and cling to the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot.

Boston maintained a tenuous grip on eighth place but it remains far from secure with the surging Washington Capitals, 3-2 winners over the Carolina Hurricanes, lurking just two points back entering the final weeks of the regular season.

"We needed this badly," Bruins netminder Tim Thomas said. "Our backs have been up against the wall, we haven't come through every time but we have come through a few times.

"We're sticking together trying to do what we have to do to get ourselves in the playoffs."

The Maple Leafs' post-season hopes appear all but over after they slipped six points behind the Bruins with just five games left.

A grim-faced capacity crowd quietly exited the Air Canada Centre knowing the Leafs are poised to miss the playoffs for a third straight year, the storied franchise's longest post-season barren stretch in 80 years.

Just weeks ago the Bruins had looked assured of playoff spot but slowly slipped down the standings, losing six of last seven.

At the same time the Leafs, who sat near the bottom of the NHL standings in mid-January, entered the race with five wins in six games.

The Maple Leafs are refusing to wave the white flag, however, insisting a miracle finish to the season might see them through.

"Obviously this is disappointing for us," said Toronto's Alex Steen. "Right now our focus remains on the last playoff spot.

"We know we're in a tough spot but we have five games to go and there's really nothing else but wins."

The Bruins grabbed the early lead on Glen Murray's first period powerplay goal.

David Krejci doubled the advantage just 72 seconds into the second while Marco Sturm increased the lead to 3-0 midway through the period with another powerplay tally.

A goal from Jason Blake late in the period trimmed the Bruins' advantage to 3-1, but Shawn Thornton broke in alone on Vesa Toskala to open the third period, sliding the puck into the open net to restore the three-goal cushion.

Toronto's Alexei Ponikarovsky and Boston's Phil Kessel traded goals before a desperate Toronto coach Paul Maurice withdrew Toskala with 3:13 left in regulation in favour of an extra attacker.

The Maple Leafs swarmed into the Boston zone but could not beat Thomas, Jeremy Reich sealing a comprehensive victory for the Bruins with an empty-net tally.

The Philadelphia Flyers edged the New York Rangers 2-1 in overtime Mike Richards scored 2:16 into the extra period of a game where both sides boosted their playoff hopes by picking up at least a point.

The deadlock in regulation ensured each team would go home with one point but Richards' strike enabled the Flyers to double their tally and move within a single point of the sixth-placed Rangers in the Eastern Conference standings.

Philadelphia had gone 0-2-2 in their previous four games, but the victory kept them two points ahead of the eighth-placed Bruins and four points ahead of the number nine Capitals, who have five games remaining.

Eight teams in each conference make the playoffs.

"We hung with it. We hung tough," Flyers coach John Stevens told reporters at Madison Square Garden.

"The Rangers are a very good defensive team and they don't give an inch.

"Our guys showed the patience necessary to hang in there and Danny Briere has probably been our best player lately."

Briere scored the tying goal, his 30th of the season, with 12:28 remaining in the third period and Richards then took advantage of a poor cross-ice pass by New York's Sean Avery for a partial break.

As defenseman Marek Malik closed on him, Richards flipped a backhander past goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

Later, he admitted: "We got a little bit lucky because the puck kind of hopped up and over Lundqvist's leg pad."

"We lost a big point," Rangers coach Tom Renney said.

Jaromir Jagr scored New York's only goal 1:41 into the game and the Rangers were unable to get a second puck past Martin Biron in the Philadelphia goal.

Jagr's goal was his 20th of the season, the 17th consecutive year he has reached the milestone, but the Czech took little solace in his team's one-point haul.

"The bottom line is that we lost a hockey game," he said.

Reuters