It lacked the sheer drama of the Philadelphia Flyers' shootout victory in Game 82 in 2010 to secure a playoff berth but the emotion was the same Saturday when Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored into an empty Pittsburgh Penguins net to cap a 3-1 victory and send the boys in orange to an improbable berth in the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The plucky Flyers will now face the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs, which begin Wednesday.
The win eliminated the Boston Bruins, who were crushed at home by the Ottawa Senators 6-1 earlier Saturday afternoon and then had to wait in agony for the outcome of the Flyers game to see if their playoff dream might live at least a day longer.