Pens have Ottawa reeling

Pittsburgh leads the NHL playoff series 2-0, with Game 3 Monday night.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — They’re not shutting down Evgeni Malkin, and they’re not even close. They’re not shutting down Sidney Crosby, and they’re not even close.

The Senators packed up a lot of worries with their sticks, gloves and helmets when they headed back to Ottawa early Saturday morning, down 2-0 in their Eastern Conference playoff series against Pittsburgh.

And they left with no immediate answers for turning it around, either, and time beginning to run out.

“They have a lot of talent and when they have the puck, they get in the zone and they’re very creative,” said Senators coach Bryan Murray, who acknowledged Saturday his team has done nothing to slow either player.

No doubt the Senators will use the two-day break — Game 3 isn’t until Monday night — to try to find a defensive combination to contain Pittsburgh’s two young standouts, who look far more relaxed and confident than they did a year ago.

Malkin has more jump and poise than he did in Ottawa’s five-game playoff series win over Pittsburgh a year ago, when he was limited to four assists. That was a continuation of a late-season slowdown in which the NHL rookie of the year in 2007 ended with 85 points but had only four goals in his last 24 games.

This spring, Malkin has been the best player in the series with one goal and five assists, setting up three goals Friday night in Game 2. Pittsburgh opened a 3-0 lead, relaxed as Ottawa tied it, then won it 5-3 with two Ryan Malone goals in the final 62 seconds.

“You give them room, and they’ll take you apart,” Senators goalie Martin Gerber said.

Crosby? He still doesn’t have a goal yet but he had four assists Friday, two on Malone’s goals. That’s only one fewer point than the five he had in last year’s series.

“What can you say about Crosby and Malkin?” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said. “They want to win. And when your leaders want to win, you know you’re on the right track. Those two did a fantastic job.”

Crosby, the NHL scoring champion and MVP a year ago, might be benefiting in an unexpected way from his 28-game layoff from mid-January until March with a high ankle sprain.

That’s 28 games’ worth of wear and tear he didn’t endure and, while being fresh probably isn’t a concern for a 20-year-old, Crosby looks to be in midseason rather than end-of-season condition.

Malkin admittedly wore down a year ago, during an NHL season that’s twice as long as the one he played in Russia the year before. As a result, he spent more time conditioning last summer, a welcomed change from the summer before when he sneaked away from his Russian team and hid out in California so he could play in the NHL.

“I feel pretty strong,” Malkin said through an interpreter. “I had a good summer. I feel good now. We have a lot of games to go and I just want to help my team go all the way through them.”

A lot of games to go, of course, would mean a deep advance into the Stanley Cup playoffs, something Pittsburgh hasn’t done since 2001.