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Hossa powers Penguins, pushes Senators to brink

Apr 15, 2008 - 3:39 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins jumped at the chance to acquire Marian Hossa at the NHL's trading deadline. On Monday, the All-Star did his best to pay them back.

Hossa had a goal and two assists as the second-seeded Penguins scored three times in the third period to cruise to a 4-1 triumph over the seventh-seeded Ottawa Senators in Game Three of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

Captain Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal scored 78 seconds apart in the third session, and fourth-liner Maxime Talbot also tallied for Pittsburgh, which took a commanding three-games-to-none lead in the series.

"It is nice to get my first playoff goal for this year," Hossa said, "but the most important thing is that we are up 3-0 - that's what counts."

Rookie Nick Foligno tallied the lone goal for Ottawa, which hosts Game Four on Wednesday.

"We're going to come out on Wednesday and try to win that game," said captain Daniel Alfredsson, who returned to action on Monday after being sidelined since April 3 with knee and neck injuries.

"That's all we can do at this point. Take it game by game. That's what we wanted to do tonight, but we came up short."

The Senators face a tall order if they hope to rebound in his series. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders are the only NHL teams to have overcome three-games-to-none series deficits.

With the game tied at 1-1 just 12 seconds into the third period, Crosby skated in on a 2-on-1 with Hossa. Last season's Hart Trophy winner elected to keep the puck and wristed a shot past Martin Gerber and just under the crossbar for his first goal of the postseason.

"I got a good bounce there and had a good look as Marian was coming up on the right side," Crosby said. "But I had a good chance to shoot and I found my spot. But chances are few and far between, especially in the playoffs, so it was nice to convert one there."

Staal responded shortly thereafter by charging up the middle of the ice before deflecting a centering feed from Tyler Kennedy past Gerber to give the Penguins a 3-1 lead.

"Everyone was still on their toes. Nothing's ever for sure in playoff hockey," Staal said. "Once we got that fourth goal and we knew how much time was left, we felt pretty comfortable - but you still never know."

"Those were a couple of plays where I should have gotten my stick more into the play," Gerber said. "On Crosby's goal, I was a little surprised on the location of the shot. Staal just hammered at it with his stick. If he tries it 10 times, he'll get it once."

Hossa capped the scoring against his former team by cleaning up a loose rebound on the doorstep and slapping it past Gerber for his first postseason goal in exactly four years.

"We really tried to remind ourselves that they still had some life in them," Crosby said. "Then we got that fourth goal and we felt a little better. But you can't take anything for granted, especially in the playoffs, and we know they're not out until we win our fourth game. Hopefully we can do that on Wednesday."

Foligno opened the scoring just 71 seconds into the second period.

All-Star Jason Spezza lofted a cross-ice pass to Foligno, who sidestepped defenseman Ryan Whitney before wristing the puck between the pads of Marc-Andre Fleury for his first career postseason goal.

"Obviously it's a nice boost to my confidence playing with those two guys," Foligno said of Spezza and Alfredsson. "I want to prove the coaches right by trying my best. It was tough to lose this game after such a good effort."

Talbot leveled the contest 4 1/2 minutes later after accepting a feed from Hossa and backhanding the puck between the pads of Gerber.

"I'm a role player and I try to change the momentum in the game and I think my goal was a momentum-breaker tonight," Talbot said. "After that, we never looked back and we played good hockey."