The Pittsburgh Penguins will look to make it back-to-back victories over the visiting Florida Panthers and sweep the season series on Sunday afternoon.

The Penguins (39-22-16, 94 points) topped the visiting Panthers 9-4 on Saturday night for their third win in the last four games.

With the victory, Pittsburgh resides 10 points back of the first-place Carolina Hurricanes in the Metropolitan Division and five points up on the third-place New York Islanders.

Evgeni Malkin (three goals, one assist) and defenseman Erik Karlsson (one goal, three assists) each recorded four-point performances for the Penguins. Ricard Rakell, Anthony Mantha and Elmer Soderblom each had a goal and an assist.

Noel Acciari and defenseman Ryan Shea also tallied while Arturs Silovs made 19 saves for the win.

Malkin became the 23rd player in NHL history to reach 1,400 points (1,403). He is the third active player to reach the milestone, joining teammate Sidney Crosby (1,756) and Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin (1,682).

“It’s an amazing number, for sure,” Malkin said. “For one team, it’s huge. I love playing here. … We have a great team right now. We played hard. Points are important, two points for the team are important because it’s huge for us. We’re fighting for the playoffs.”

Crosby had two assists in the win on Saturday to pass Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman (1,755) for the seventh-most points in NHL history.

“It feels like every couple of games these guys hit another milestone,” Penguins coach Dan Muse said. “It’s not like these minor milestones. These are big ones; these are some that you never really even get to see. It’s incredible.”

The Panthers (37-36-3, 76 points), who are officially eliminated from playoff contention, enter Sunday’s rematch with the Penguins looking to avoid back-to-back losses and win for just the third time in seven games.

“Obviously, we’re playing the exact same team, so clean things up that we need to and get another crack at them tomorrow,” Panthers forward Cole Schwindt said.

A.J. Greer collected a goal and an assist and defenseman Seth Jones, Noah Gregor and Mackie Samoskevich also tallied for the Panthers, who are 16-21-0 on the road.

“It was kind of a barrage of goals,” Jones said. “We did a good job coming back and making it 2-2 after a slow start, but then you blink, and it’s 9-2. We just couldn’t stop the bleeding. They did a good around the net.”

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed six goals on 19 shots before being replaced by Daniil Tarasov midway through the second. Tarasov stopped nine shots in relief.

“It got away from us,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I mean, just the quickness of the game, for us, was a lot. The puck movement. So, we had touches on almost all of the pucks that ended up in our net. … We were slower than they were. Credit them, they were fast.”

Florida dropped a 5-3 decision in Pittsburgh on Oct. 23.

The Panthers last beat the Penguins 4-3 in a shootout on March 23, 2025. Florida won two of three meetings between the clubs last season.

–Field Level Media

The Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers are experiencing the Eastern Conference wild-card race from very different perspectives.

In either case, both teams are hungry for a win Sunday afternoon when the Bruins visit the Flyers in a late-season clash.

Boston (43-26-8, 94 points) currently sits atop the East wild-card standings with five games remaining. There is a four-way tie for the second and final wild-card spot that includes Philadelphia (38-26-12, 88 points), with all four teams having five or six games to play.

“It’s awesome. It’s the best time of the year, just trying to make the playoffs and just the playoff push,” Flyers rookie Alex Bump said. “It’s the best time of the year. It’s fun hockey. It’s kind of the situation you want to be in.”

Bump was in a good mood Friday after Philadelphia notched a 4-1 road victory over the New York Islanders, who sit one point ahead of the Flyers for third place in the Metropolitan Division. The top three teams in each division earn automatic playoff spots.

Bump joined defenseman Travis Sanheim with a goal and an assist against the Islanders, while Matvei Michkov had one and two, respectively. The Flyers had lost their previous two games — both against wild-card contenders — and desperately needed a crisp performance on Long Island.

“Obviously, a lot of resilience from our team,” Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet said. “(We’ve played) three in four, four in six. I just love the energy, especially early. It’s a tough building to come into and they had a couple of days’ rest. … Everyone contributed tonight.”

Dan Vladar made 21 saves as the Flyers avoided their first three-game losing streak since late January.

“The guys played an unbelievable game today,” Vladar said.

The Flyers have a day of rest heading into Sunday’s affair, while the Bruins are facing a challenging back-to-back after losing 3-1 at Tampa Bay on Saturday. The Bruins led 1-0 in the third period before the Lightning scored three times to drop Boston to 0-2-0 on its four-game road trip.

“We played a pretty good game. We really did,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said.

Casey Mittelstadt scored the only goal for the Bruins, while Jeremy Swayman made 20 saves on 22 shots.

“I thought we had a lot of positives for our group. Sometimes you don’t get the results,” said Swayman, who has allowed three goals or fewer in each of his last nine starts. “Our team shouldn’t be hanging their heads. A lot of great things came out of tonight’s game and that’s what we should be focused on.”

The Bruins have one of the top-10 power-play units in the NHL but went 0-for-4 with the man advantage against Tampa Bay. They also failed to score with the extra skater (0-for-2) in Thursday’s 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.

“We had a few chances, even in the first, but I also thought the power play needed to step up,” Sturm said. “It didn’t really give us a whole lot of Grade-A chances. We were fine, though. We were still good enough today. But those little details, they matter, and those details have been hurting us for two games in a row.”

This is the third and final meeting this season between Philadelphia and Boston. The Bruins defeated the Flyers 6-3 on Jan. 29 before Philadelphia returned the favor with a 3-1 home victory on Feb. 28.

–Field Level Media

The future may be now for Cincinnati Reds right-hander Chase Burns.

The 23-year-old took a no-hitter into the fifth inning in his first start of the season before giving up one hit, walking three and striking out seven in a 2-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday. It was his first major league win after going 0-3 in 13 appearances last season.

Burns (1-0, 0.00 ERA) threw 78 pitches and will take the mound again Sunday when the Reds try to sweep the Texas Rangers in Arlington, Texas.

“I have said probably a million times, if he works ahead, and he will get better at it, it gets very exciting,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “Our plan this spring was to get him in position to make these starts. We want him to make every start and pitch a lot. His future is bright, but I think the present will be OK, too.”

Burns, the No. 2 overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft, has never faced the Rangers.

The Reds are struggling at the plate, hitting only .203 as a team, but Sal Stewart is off a great start with a .407 average.

He had an RBI single in the Reds’ two-run first inning Saturday. It turned out to be the hit of the game as Cincinnati was shut out from then on.

Stewart’s fast start is needed as stars Elly De La Cruz (.219) and Eugenio Suarez (.226) are struggling. Both have struck out 13 times.

Suarez does lead the team with six RBIs and Cruz leads the team with three home runs but has driven in only four runs.

The Rangers are hitting .243 as a team, but Texas has some key starters who are languishing.

No. 2 hitter Wyatt Langford is hitting .167 with 10 strikeouts, adding three on Saturday.

Josh Jung is hitting .143 and Joc Pederson is 0-for-14 after an 0-for-4 Saturday.

After Jake Burger walked to lead off the ninth inning, Pederson hit into a double play.

“We just couldn’t get anything together after a couple of hits or a walk or whatever,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “We just couldn’t string anything together.”

Schumaker isn’t too worried about his young sluggers, especially Langford.

“It is a 162-game schedule,” he said. “I told him those balls will start falling. It is frustrating to hit the ball hard and not get anything for it, but he will be all right.”

Evan Carter is hitting .273 and Schumaker is looking to play the left-handed hitter more against left-handed pitching.

“I gotta give him a chance against lefties and see how it goes,” Schumaker said. “He will get his chances and he will get better.”

The Rangers will send right-hander Jack Leiter to the mound Sunday.

The 25-year-old is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA after beating the Baltimore Orioles 5-2 in his first start. He allowed two earned runs in five innings and struck out eight.

Schumaker was impressed by what he saw in that outing from Leiter, who was the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2021.

“The changeup was elite,” Schumaker said after the game. “Righty, lefty didn’t really matter. It just seemed like a carryover from his last start last year. And I think this is who he’s going to be. You are going to see more of this version of Jack throughout the year.”

Leiter is 1-0 against the Reds with a 0.00 ERA after beating Cincinnati in his only career start against them last April. He allowed one hit over five innings.

–Field Level Media