Rickard Rakell scores twice as Penguins handle Panthers

Rickard Rakell scored twice, and Evgeni Malkin added a pair of helpers as the Pittsburgh Penguins upended the visiting Florida Panthers 5-2 on Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the Penguins (40-22-16, 96 points) picked up their second win over the Panthers in as many days and swept the three-game season series against Florida.

Sidney Crosby scored and added two assists, Elmer Soderblom and Bryan Rust also scored for the Penguins, who moved seven points up on the third-place New York Islanders in the Metropolitan Division.

Arturs Silvos made 29 saves for Pittsburgh, which improved to 4-1 over its last five.

Cole Schwindt and Carter Verhaeghe scored goals for the Panthers (37-37-3, 77 points), who have dropped back-to-back games and are eliminated from playoff contention.

Daniil Tarasov stopped 18 shots for Florida, which has lost five of seven.

Pittsburgh opened the scoring at 11:00 of the first period after Tarasov mishandled the puck, put his pass on the stick of Soderblom, who put his shot into a wide-open net for his sixth of the season.

Schwindt tied it 1-1 as his shot hit Silvos in the mask and beat him five-hole at 16:15

The Penguins responded 35 Seconds later as Crosby snapped a shot glove side past Tarasov from the faceoff dot for his 29th of the season. With the goal, Crosby reached the point per game mark for a 21st consecutive season.

With his secondary assist on the goal, Bryan Rust reached the 500-point mark for his career.

Rakell made it 3-1 at 19:12 on a power play, one-timing a Crosby feed past an outstretched Tarasov for his 23rd.

Pittsburgh took a 4-1 lead at 18:08 of the middle frame on Rakell's second of the afternoon. The Penguins forward batted in a bouncing puck for his 24th of the season.

Rust made it 5-1, backhanding a Crosby feed past Tarasov at 3:48 of the third.

Florida pulled to 5-2 on a power play at 14:15 of the third period as Verhaeghe beat a screened Silvos for his 24th of the season.