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Penguins look to put Senators in deep hole

Apr 14, 2008 - 1:14 PM Pittsburgh at Ottawa 7:00 pm EDT Eastern Conference quarterfinals Penguins lead, 2-0

OTTAWA (Ticker) - The Pittsburgh Penguins' offense has been too much for the Ottawa Senators in the first two contests of the series.

The Penguins look to take a commanding series lead when they take on the Senators in Game Three of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Monday.

Pittsburgh has totalled nine goals in the first two games against Ottawa, which had allowed the most regular-season tallies of any playoff team.

Sidney Crosby had four assists and Evgeni Malkin had three as Pittsburgh posted a 5-3 victory in Game Two on Friday. Petr Sykora and Ryan Malone each scored twice in the win.

"Obviously, it's a big win," Crosby said. "We wanted to make sure we took these two games here at home. I think it was a nail-biter there, but I think we played great hockey and we deserved to win the hockey game."

The Senators, who defeated the Penguins in five games in last season's Eastern Conference quarterfinals, has gone just 1-for-9 on the power play and is now 2-7-1 in their last 10 games overall.

Shean Donovan, Cory Stillman and Cody Bass all tallied in the Game Two loss for Ottawa, which split a pair of regular season home games against Pittsburgh.

"We're down 2-0, we're going home, we're looking forward to Game Three," Stillman said. "You win Game Three, it's a 2-1 series. We got some good goaltending tonight. (It's time) for the rest of us to do our job now."

The Senators, who are without captain Daniel Alfredsson and centers Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly, may be without leading scorer Jason Spezza, who injured his leg in Game Two. Spezza, who had a career-high 92 points, missed Sunday's practice.

Game Four is on Wednesday in Ottawa.