s. Evans is headed to Notre Dame. "Hes a skilled centre with great

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Pittsburgh Penguins have struggled at times in an injury-filled season. Nike Vapormax From China . When a game is in the balance, however, they still have the personnel and the experience to end up with the two points. Chris Kunitz and Beau Bennett scored goals 47 seconds apart midway through the third period and Marc-Andre Fleury made 35 saves and the Penguins clinched a playoff spot with a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night. "I thought to a man we stepped up," coach Dan Bylsma said after his team ended a string of three regulation defeats. "Were fighting for every inch we can get right now. Tonight, this was exactly what weve talked about and wanted from this game. It was a playoff-type game, with playoff-type intensity." The Penguins are now at 99 points to move closer to clinching the Metropolitan Division title. But it was far from easy, particularly without star forward Evgeni Malkin (foot) and other injured mainstays such as Paul Martin, Pascal Dupuis and Kris Letang. Bennett hadnt played in the past 50 games after surgery on his wrist. Yet he came up with the game-winning goal. "Skating on my own, its a lot of skill stuff," he said of the hours spent rehabbing the injury and trying to get back into game shape. "Its something thats grown my game even with being out. I felt pretty good out there." Fleury was at his best early -- and late. He made a terrific save on the first shift on Cam Atkinsons shot off a deflection. Then he made huge saves on Brandon Dubinsky and Atkinson during a scrum in front of the net in the final seconds. "He was outstanding all game," Bylsma said. After a chippy game with lots of hard checks and few great scoring chances, the Penguins finally broke a scoreless battle at 10:35. Sidney Crosby carried the puck through the neutral zone and slid a pass to Kunitz whose wrister from the top of the left circle avoided the outstretched stick of defenceman James Wisniewski to beat backup goalie Curtis McElhinney, who had stopped the first 28 shots he faced. It was Kunitzs 34th goal. Before that goal could be announced to a capacity crowd of 18,908, Bennett skated with the puck up the right wing on an odd-man rush. He tucked a hard wrist shot inside the far post for his second of the season at 11:22. "That first one, it shot through our defenceman and unfortunately I picked it up late," said McElhinney, who took over in place of the flu-ridden Sergei Bobrovsky. "The second one they capitalized on a 2-on-1. Its a simple game; sometimes its just a matter of getting the right bounces." McElhinney had 29 saves as Columbus dropped to 0-5 against the Penguins this season. "In four of those five games, its been good hockey," said Blue Jackets coach Todd Richards. "It just came down to one or two plays -- and they were the team that made the plays." Wisniewski scored a power-play goal for Columbus with 3:06 left to cut the lead to 2-1. Pittsburgh hung on as Fleury stood tall in the last 10 seconds to turn away the potential tying goal. "I took a shot and we kept banging," said Dubinsky. "They collapsed on the net pretty hard and the puck squirted off to the side." The Blue Jackets came into the game in a four-way tie for a wild-card spot in the East. Despite the loss, the Blue Jackets still hold the first wild-card spot in the East. They own the tiebreaker against the other three teams with 80 points (Detroit, Washington, Toronto) due to wins in regulation. "We have to understand the urgency and desperation we have to come out with tomorrow (at Carolina)," Wisniewski said. Notes: The Columbus Dispatch reported on Friday that the Blue Jackets are 29th in the 30-team NHL in attendance, drawing 14,347 per game. Despite a 23 per cent increase in season-ticket sales to 8,600, attendance has actually dropped from last season (14,564). ... After a sunny, warm day in Columbus, a weatherman appearing on the monitors during the second intermission was loudly booed for predicting snow on Saturday. Air Max 90 Outlet . -- Even as Chris Paul remained evasive about his future, he did what team leaders are expected to do. Air Max Plus Outlet . Kerber will next play Estonias Kaia Kanepi, who beat American qualifier Victoria Duval 6-1, 6-3. In other first-round matches, Lucie Safarova beat 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-4 and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands had a 6-4, 6-3 win over Canadas Eugenie Bouchard. http://www.cheapairmaxchinawholesale.com/balenciaga-outlet.html . -- One shot came out of bottom of a cactus, the other from the base of a desert bush with rocks scattered around it.PHILADELPHIA -- The Montreal Canadiens got bigger in Saturdays NHL draft but couldnt resist the allure of five-foot-eight Sherbrooke centre Daniel Audette. Its other five picks were all six foot or better, with three at 6-1 or above. Third-round pick Brett Lernout stands six foot four and weighs 206 pounds. "Hes a big strong strapping defenceman," Trevor Timmins, Montreals director of amateur scouting, said of Lernout. "Hes tough as nails and has a heavy shot." Timmins had talked prior to the draft about the Habs wanting to "get bigger, stronger, faster." "But at the same time if theres a player thats undersized there and hes a good hockey player, then hes hard to pass. Thats the situation here with Daniel -- similar to a Brendan Gallagher in his draft year. You simply cant go by a player with that much ability." Gallagher is five foot nine and 180 pounds but plays much larger. The 175-pound Audette had 21 goals and 55 assists in 68 games last season. Audette, the son of Habs amateur scout and former NHLer Donald Audette, went in the fifth round. Timmins said Audette Sr. had not been involved in any of the pre-draft discussion on his son. In fact, Donald was told to spend the afternoon in the stands with his wife and son until Daniel got drafted. Donald collected 260 goals and 249 assists 735 career NHL games with the Buffalo Sabres, Los Angeles Kings, Atlanta Thrashers, Dallas Stars, Montreal and Florida Panthers. The Canadiens traded up to get Lernout, a Swift Current defenceman. They gave up their third-round pick (87th overall) and fourth-round pick (117th overall) to get Arizonas third-rounder (73rd overall). "I looked at the team picking in front of us and I thought there was a good chance that he wouldnt be there (by Montreals pick) ... We wanted to add some ssize on defence and he was a good fit for us there," said Timmins. Air Max 95 Black Sale. Montreal took AJHL defenceman Nikolas Koberstein (125th overall) and Audette (147th overall) in the fifth round, USHL goalie Hayden Hawkey (177th overall) in the sixth round and Ontario Junior Hockey League forward Jake Evans (207th overall) in the seventh round. Montreal used its first-round pick Friday to take Russian forward Nikita Scherbak of the Saskatoon Blades 26th overall. Thanks to reaching the Eastern Conference final, the Canadiens draft position was well down this year. "If you take a look at our picks in every round, theyre pretty late. So the asset value of the picks we had wasnt near as high as last year or the year before," Timmins said. "Thats why we had to make that trade in the third (round) to move up. "We had to wait out turn pretty long in each round. Ill tell you (how we did) a few years down the road. But were happy with the guys we got. Theyre the guys we targeted and we still had guys left on the list that we wanted to draft." The Habs went "under the radar" on Koberstein, according to their scouting director. "I think this guy has good upside and long-range projection," he said. "Hes a great kid and has tons of character but hes a good hockey player too." Koberstein is committed to play at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks after one more year with the Olds Grizzlys of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Timmins sees him as a five-year player, meaning he has one year at Junior A and four at college. Hawkey, USHL goalie of the year, is committed to play collegiate hockey at Providence. "Hes like money in the bank," said Timmins. Evans is headed to Notre Dame. "Hes a skilled centre with great playmaking ability," said Timmins. ' ' '