Penguins’ Rout a Capital Crime

Fired up by the opposing coach’s bravado, the Pittsburgh Penguins handed the Washington Capitals their worst playoff loss in franchise history.

The Penguins scored on three of their first four shots--two on power plays and a third skating four on four--as European speed and finesse dominated North American brute Thursday night in a 7-0 Game 1 victory at Washington in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The victory came two days after Washington Coach Ron Wilson, commenting on the unusual schedule for the series, said he would be willing to play all seven games at Pittsburgh and his team would “go in there and beat ‘em anyway.”

That didn’t sit well with the Penguins.

“It was up on the bulletin board,” right wing Matthew Barnaby said. “It definitely made us angry. You want to be taken seriously.”

Six Penguins scored, and Jaromir Jagr had four assists. Three goals came skating four on four, two on five-on-four power plays and another on a five on three. On every goal, Pittsburgh had plenty of ice--whether from an odd-man rush or just sloppy defense. Washington had 27 penalty minutes.

“That was about the most embarrassing effort of the season,” right wing Terry Yake said. “We got outplayed in every aspect of the game. They outchecked us, they outplayed us in the power play, penalty-kill. I don’t know how many two-on-ones, two-on-nones, three-on-twos they had.”

Under the quirky schedule, the seventh-seeded Penguins take the 1-0 series lead home for the next two games, Saturday and Monday. Usually the higher seed gets the first two games at home, but the unavailability of Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena for several days next week prompted the NHL to put the second-seeded Capitals at home for Games 1, 4, 5 and 7.

New Jersey 4, Florida 3--Scott Stevens, Petr Sykora and Sergei Brylin scored early as the Devils opened a three-goal lead and then avoided another playoff embarrassment by holding off the Panthers at East Rutherford, N.J. .

Rookie Scott Gomez also scored and Martin Brodeur made 20 saves as the Devils took the opening game of the first-round Eastern Conference series. Game 2 will be played Sunday, with the contest marking the return of Devil defenseman Scott Niedermayer from a 10-game suspension for hitting the Panthers’ Peter Worrell over the head with his stick March 19.

“Playoffs are too important to worry about something like that,” Worrell said. “The only thing we can worry about is he is a good hockey player and he’s going to come back in the next game and help their team out.”

Worrell, who was booed every time he touched the puck, and Mike Sillinger and Rob Niedermayer, Scott’s brother, scored for the Panthers, making their first playoff appearance since 1997.

Dallas 3, Edmonton 0--Brett Hull scored a goal that looked a lot like his Stanley Cup winner last summer and assisted on another at Dallas, helping the Stars to a 2-0 lead in the first-round Western Conference series.

Kirk Muller and Scott Thornton also scored for Dallas, continuing an early playoff trend of production from surprising players. Hull is the only one of the Stars’ top five scorers with a goal in the two games.

Edmonton, which will have Game 3 of the best-of-seven series on its home ice Sunday, managed only 17 shots as Ed Belfour posted his eighth playoff shutout.

Most of the credit, though, goes to a Dallas defense led by captain Derian Hatcher, whose steamroller hits frustrated the Oilers and triggered several penalties on retaliatory hits.

The Oilers will be happy to get away from Reunion Arena, where they have lost 11 in a row.

Colorado 6, Phoenix 3--Sandis Ozolinsh, who failed to score a goal in the final 20 games of the regular season, scored two goals to help the Avalanche win Game 1 of a Western Conference first-round series at Denver.

Shjon Podein added two goals for the Avalanche, who shrugged off the absence of injured star Peter Forsberg.

Dave Andreychuk and Alex Tanguay also scored for Colorado.

Travis Green, Shane Doan and Teppo Numminem scored for Phoenix.