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.
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.
In New York, the Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils 5-3 on Wednesday to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their NHL Eastern Conference quarter-final playoff series.
The Rangers' winning goal was scored on a booming slapshot by rookie defenseman Marc Staal for his first career playoff goal with just over three minutes to play. Staal had inadvertently diverted the puck into his own net in the third game on Sunday to give the Devils their only win.
Scott Gomez, who joined the Rangers this season after playing for the Devils for seven years, scored the first goal and added the fifth into an empty net directly from a face-off with 12 seconds left at Madison Square Garden.
Martin Straka and Chris Drury also scored for New York and Patrik Elias had two goals for New Jersey. Mike Mottau claimed the visitors' third.
The Rangers can wrap up the best-of-seven series with a win in game five in Newark, New Jersey, on Friday.
In 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 after a 3-2 victory on Wednesday.
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 on Friday in Detroit.
(Agencies April 18, 2008)