Penrith have put pressure on St George Illawarra to hold onto their spot in the NRL top eight after outlasting a stubborn Canterbury outfit 16-8 at Pepper Stadium.
With scores level at 8-8 at halftime on Thursday night, the game remained in the balance on until an acrobatic try by Dallin Watene-Zelezniak put the Panthers ahead in the 57th minute.
This followed an impressive defensive display by the Bulldogs, who had held the Panthers out for 18 straight plays on their goalline midway through the second half.
However a crucial Kerrod Holland turnover gave the home side one more crack, and Waqa Blake put Watene-Zelezniak over in the corner to the delight of the 8727 crowd.
A handful of errors invited the Bulldogs back into the contest but as they have all year, the visitors continued to struggle in attack and failed to convert opportunities.
Penrith centre Tyrone Peachey sealed the win when he scored in the 70th minute.
The win extends the Panthers' winning streak to four and lifts them to 24 points alongside the eighth-placed Dragons who face Newcastle on Saturday.
"It was always going to be like that tonight against the Dogs," Panthers coach Anthony Griffin said.
"But I thought from our end, it was good that we were able to meet that from them and push through the other side of it."
The defeat ends the faint finals hopes of the Bulldogs, who have lost four of their past five matches, as well as Des Hasler's streak of 12-straight finals appearances as coach.
"The effort's been always been there. I thought we had opportunities tonight, Penrith gave us a few. We just weren't quite able to capitalise," Hasler said.
"It's going to be hard from here (to make finals)."
Penrith took an 8-0 lead inside 20 minutes with a Nathan Cleary penalty goal and Peter Wallace's try off a Dylan Edwards grubber.
But momentum swung on two tackle-one errors by Watene-Zelezniak, with Bulldogs five-eighth Josh Reynolds taking advantage by scoring on the Penrith winger's first mistake.
The second blunder from Watene-Zelezniak led to Holland levelling the scores with a penalty goal.
Bulldogs prop Sam Kasiano lasted five minutes before bruising his sternum in the first half, while Panthers counterpart Leilani Latu broke his jaw early in the second term and was sent to hospital.
