Crosby leads Pens to 7-4 win

Associated Press

OTTAWA

With a wildly offensive second period straight out of the 1980s, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins moved within one victory of advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Crosby had four points, including two of Pittsburgh’s five goals in the second, leading the Penguins to a 7-4 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night and a 3-1 series lead.

Crosby assisted on Evgeni Malkin’s power-play goal 11:50 in, the only score of the first period.

Crosby scored two of Pittsburgh’s three goals in a 2:25 span early in the second. Matt Cooke scored 12 seconds after Crosby’s first goal to make it 3-0, and the Penguins’ 22-year-old captain added his fourth goal of the series at 6:12 to chase Brian Elliott.

“I feel like I’m creating things,” Crosby said. “That’s what I want to do and the puck’s gone in.”

Chris Kunitz had a goal and two assists and Maxime Talbot had a goal and an assist as the teams combined for eight goals in the second, one short of the NHL playoff record for goals in a period.

“This was by far the wildest game I’ve been a part of in the playoffs,” said Kunitz, who won Stanley Cups with Anaheim in 2007 and Pittsburgh last season.

Jordan Staal scored in the third period and Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for his third straight win.

Sergei Gonchar had three assists for the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins, who need one more win to claim their second first-round series win over Ottawa in three years.

“It’s tough to battle back when you give up that many goals early on in the game, especially when you’re playing against a team like them,” Senators coach Cory Clouston said.

Matt Cullen had a goal and two assists for Ottawa. Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza each had a goal and an assist, and Chris Neil scored his second.

“Today was probably the first time where I felt like we got away from our game plan a little more than we have trying to catch up,” Alfredsson said. “We kind of shot ourselves in the foot and gave them too many odd-man rushes and easy goals.”

Elliott stopped 15 of 19 shots. Pascal Leclaire made 20 saves after coming on in relief in his Senators playoff debut.

“We didn’t make good on their turnovers and they made good on our turnovers,” Clouston said. “When we turned the puck over it was in the back of our net, and that’s what good teams do. They capitalize on your mistakes and right now we’re not capitalizing on their mistakes, or enough of them, and we’re not forcing them to make enough mistakes.”

Game 5 is Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

Malkin scored his fourth goal to put the Penguins up 1-0 when he beat Elliott with a shot from the right faceoff circle.