The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Ottawa Senators 3-1 and completed a four-game sweep of their NHL first-round playoff series on Wednesday.
Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals, Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds remaining and had an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which got its first sweep in 16 years and its first playoff series win since 2001.
Left wing Cory Stillman scored for Ottawa.
The sweep was a measure of revenge for the young Penguins, who were knocked out of last year’s playoffs in five games by the Senators. Ottawa went on to make its first Stanley Cup finals appearance in modern franchise history, losing in five to Anaheim.
The Penguins also became the first team to advance to the second round. Pittsburgh will face Boston, if the Bruins overcome their 3-1 series deficit against Montreal to advance, or the winner of the New Jersey-New York series.
Rangers 4, Devils 3
At New York, Marc Staal scored his first playoff goal with 3:13 left in Game 4, and New York took a 3-1 lead in the series against New Jersey.
Scott Gomez had two goals and Chris Drury also scored for the Rangers, who could end the series today with a win at New Jersey. New York took the first two games on enemy ice before splitting two at home.
Rookie defenseman Staal took a pass from Martin Straka, who provided the Rangers with one of their four one-goal leads, and fired a drive from inside the blue line that got by Brodeur.
Gomez sealed it with an empty-netter with 12.2 seconds left.
Patrik Elias scored twice and Mike Mottau got New Jersey even in the third period. Brodeur finished with 34 saves.
Predators 3, Red Wings 2
At Nashville, Tennessee, Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber scored in a 32-second span in the first period, and Nashville evened the first-round Western Conference series with Detroit at 2-2.
Dan Ellis stopped 39 shots, Greg de Vries added a goal and Martin Erat had two assists as the Predators grabbed a lead in the first period and never let up on the top-seeded Red Wings. They even chased six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek at 6:35 of the second, having stopped 11 of 14 shots.
Pavel Datsyuk scored twice for Detroit.
Game 5 is tonight in Detroit.
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