Pens Up 2-0

Ryan Malone scored the winning, power-play goal with 62 seconds left tonight, erasing Ottawa's hard-charging rally from a three-goal deficit, and gave the Penguins a 5-3 triumph and a two-game lead in their NHL best-of-seven playoff series.

Malone, from Upper St. Clair, scored the third Penguins goal in six man-advantage opportunities. He then added an empty-net goal just before the final buzzer. Most important, Malone's last-minute heroics gave the Penguins their first two-game playoff lead in six years.

The Penguins haven't had a 2-0 postseason lead since 2001, when they won the first pair in Buffalo. They had to go seven games and a Game 7 overtime before prevailing in that series.

This wild night, a 3-0 Penguins lead evaporated by the midpoint of the third period.

Sergei Gonchar on a five-on-three power play put the home side ahead through the first period, 1-0. Petr Sykora -- without a hat trick for 12 NHL seasons and last night his 90th playoff game -- tallied two in the second period, the first on the power play and the second off a lovely cross-ice pass from Evgeni Malkin.

Ottawa found life 33 seconds later.

Chris Neil set up former Penguin Shean Donovan for the Senators' first goal of the series, summarily ending Marc-Andre Fleury's shutout streak at 91 minutes, 25 seconds. And the Senators goals kept on coming.

Using flurries in front of Fleury, crashing the cage and vying for rebounds, Ottawa scored next on the power play, Cory Stillman getting the goal amid a Tyler Kennedy penalty and paring the Penguins' lead to 3-2.

The visitors tied the score, 3-3, at 8:51 of the third period, when fourth-liner Cody Boss, with nothing but four penalty minutes to show for his previous five periods of playoff work, potted the tying goal from close range and completed the Ottawa comeback.

The Penguins were pelting Ottawa goalie Martin Gerber at record paces. Never before had the Senators allowed so many as 20 shots in a period, and they had it happen in the first and second periods to the offensive Penguins. Never before had they yielded more than 42 shots in a game, and that an overtime playoff loss at Toronto in 2002 -- and then they gave up 54 in regulation.

Gerber never before made more than the 31 saves he had Wednesday in a 4-0 Game 1 loss, and he shattered that personal mark tonight with 50.

The Penguins' previous playoff record for shots was 49 against St. Louis in 1970.