Some in hockey feel that the concept of momentum is overrated. Maybe even nonexistent, or made up.

They believe everything in sports is a singular moment. Any play or game that happens is the result of its own series of circumstances and is not related at all to anything that happened a week, a day or even five minutes earlier.

Others disagree.

“I do believe in momentum,” Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Stuart Skinner said after a 5-1 win over Detroit on Tuesday night. “We’re definitely feeling good.”

That victory certainly helped Skinner’s case as he personally bridged momentum period to period with a flashy right pad save against the Red Wings ’ Alex DeBrincat with under 10 seconds left in the second. It allowed the Penguins to carry a 4-1 lead into the locker room.

“It was a little bit of a scrambly play, a broken play. A nice play to my right,” Skinner recalled. “I was able to get my eyes on it. Just spread. I did my best to get a pad on it. I was able to. I thought that was big going into the third. Momentum could have shifted there, but we were able to keep it our way.”

Skinner then made a pair of nice glove saves in the third and kept a wild scramble in front of the cage from doing any damage as he ended up blanking Detroit for the final 36 minutes of the game.

After a bumpy March and a rocky first 30 minutes against the New York Islanders on Monday, Skinner and fellow goalie Arturs Silovs kept a pair of desperate clubs at bay, yielding just one goal on the last 32 shots they faced in two of the biggest games of the season.

“He was awesome. Start to finish, a great game. He had some big saves in huge moments,” coach Dan Muse said of Skinner. “Things were starting to swing a little bit their way. They were getting a little bit of the momentum. I thought he was a real calming presence with some of the saves.”

Similarly, the Penguins’ goal-scoring touch carried over from Monday’s 8-3 win on Long Island as they scored three times in the first 20 minutes versus the Red Wings. The club enjoyed a seven-goal avalanche versus the Isles on Monday to close out the final 29 minutes of that wild emotional ride.

“It was a strong effort for us, and we wanted to keep building on that,” Muse said. “You had to travel. You get in (late). It’s easy to say we’re a little tired. But the guys dug in, and they wanted to keep that (momentum) going.”

Part of the Penguins’ continued offensive surge Tuesday was a willingness to fire the puck from distance. Both Egor Chinakhov and Rickard Rakell wired pucks into the net from just beyond the top of the circles in the offensive end.

Meanwhile, Justin Brazeau and Noel Acciari were both credited with goals that began with shots from distance up high in the Detroit zone.

“This time of year, it becomes so much harder to score. You have to make sure you are getting pucks (to the net) as much as possible and get traffic there,” Brazeau said. “I thought we did a really good job of that.”

You could even argue that momentum carried across state lines, as Tuesday night results in Ohio, New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., all aided the Penguins.

Columbus lost 5-2 at home to Carolina. The Islanders suffered a 4-3 regulation defeat in Buffalo. The Panthers doubled up Ottawa, 6-3, in Florida, and the Flyers fell 6-4 at Washington. So the Blue Jackets, Isles, Senators and Flyers all failed to keep pace with the Penguins, who boosted their point total to 92. That’s good for a three-point cushion over the Islanders in second place of the Metropolitan Division, and six points clear of slipping out of the playoffs behind Detroit, Philly and Ottawa, all of whom are tied for ninth place in the conference with 86 points apiece.

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“Perfect,” Acciari said with a smile once he learned of the out-of-town results.

Since the middle of the second period on Long Island, the Penguins have been pretty close to perfect. When they haven’t been, for the most part, Silovs and Skinner have made up for that.

Now we’ll see if momentum can stretch through an off day and a flight to Florida before facing Tampa Bay and their 98 points Thursday night.