Penguins complete sweep of Senators

Evgeni Malkin and Jarko Ruutu scored second-period goals, leading the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins to a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night to complete a four-game sweep of their first-round series.

Sidney Crosby scored into an empty net with 7.5 seconds left and had an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves for Pittsburgh, which got its first sweep in 16 years and its first playoff series win since 2001.

Cory Stillman scored for Ottawa, which was swept out of the first round for the third time in its 11 consecutive playoff appearances.

The sweep was a measure of revenge for the young Penguins, eliminated from last year’s playoffs in five games by the Senators. Ottawa went on to make its first Stanley Cup finals appearance in modern franchise history, losing in five to the Ducks.

The Penguins also became the first team to advance to the second round. Pittsburgh will face Boston, if the Bruins overcome their 3-1 series deficit against Montreal to advance, or the winner of the New Jersey-New York Rangers series.

N.Y. Rangers 5, New Jersey 3 -- Marc Staal scored his first playoff goal with 3:13 left at New York to push the Rangers within a win of the second round by taking a 3-1 lead in the series.

Scott Gomez had two goals and Chris Drury also scored for the Rangers. Gomez secured it with an empty-netter with 12.2 seconds left.

Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves as the Rangers beat the Devils for the 10th time in 12 meetings this season.

Nashville 3, Detroit 2 -- Dan Hamhuis and Shea Weber scored in a 32-second span of the first period at Nashville and the Predators evened their series with the Red Wings at 2-2.

Dan Ellis stopped 39 shots, Greg de Vries added a goal and Martin Erat had two assists as the Predators grabbed a lead in the first period and never let up on the top-seeded Red Wings. They even chased six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek at 6:35 of the second, having stopped 11 of 14 shots.