PITTSBURGH — Back in October when the season began, the Pittsburgh Penguins were coming off a last-place finish and looking to reclaim mere respectability.

Come December when the team was near the .500 mark, players shifted their focus to qualifying for the NHL postseason.

Now, the Penguins are within four points of the Atlantic Division lead and six points behind the Eastern Conference-leading Buffalo Sabres.

"That shows what kind of turnaround we had," said backup goalie Jocelyn Thibault, who shut out the division-leading New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night. "We've pushed it into second gear. It's great."

The win over New Jersey came 24 hours after a 5-4 shootout win over the Sabres to give the Penguins the third-most points in the conference. (Pittsburgh, however, holds the No. 4 seed because the top three seeds go to division leaders.)

With an 11-point lead over ninth-place Toronto with 12 games to play, it would take quite a collapse for the Penguins to miss the postseason. So now the bar has been set higher.

"It's always better to shoot high," winger Georges Laraque said. "If you miss the playoffs, that's it. But if you shoot for first in the division, then at least you know you're still in. Now we're close to finishing first, and that's always the goal. It's a big difference trying to go for first (as opposed) to trying to make the playoffs."

With a cushion between it and the eighth and final playoff spot, Pittsburgh is able to shift its focus from merely qualifying for the postseason to getting ready to make a run once it gets there.

The Penguins, who haven't made the playoffs since 2001, are in the midst of playing a league-high 17 games in March. That game-on-every-other-night schedule is similar to how the playoffs are conducted.

"We want to make sure we're well-prepared for the playoffs," coach Michel Therrien said. "It's important for us to play solid hockey. I'm very optimistic about the way we played against the top two teams in the conference."

The Penguins recently had a string of 15 games out of 16 that were decided by one goal. For a team with one of the youngest cores in the league, experience in that type of pressure-cooker will only help.

"It's not like there's a light we open on and off, saying, 'It's April 11, it's playoff time. We're ready,"' Therrien said. "I think you need to have the right attitude to prepare yourself a month before the playoffs and make sure we're on the right track. I think our team has started to get in that mode with the way we're battling and the way we're preparing ourselves."

Notes: Laraque, who missed both games this week due to back spasms, said after practice Thursday he is available to play tonight. ... D Mark Eaton, out since March 1 with a sprained knee, won't be ready to play until next week at the earliest.