Vokoun, Penguins beat Ottawa in NHL game one

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist and Tomas Vokoun recorded his third straight win since replacing Marc-Andre Fleury as Pittsburgh beat Ottawa 4-1 in the opener of their second-round series. Russian forward Malkin, who had a point in all six games of the Penguins' first-round series win over the New York Islanders, pushed his playoff point total to 13 in seven games so far. Backup Vokoun, of the Czech Republic, took over from starting goaltender Fleury for game five against New York. He finished with 35 stops on Tuesday in front of a crowd of 18,621 at the Consol Energy Center arena. "This game showed we can play better in the defensive zone," Malkin said. "The power play worked and the penalty kill was unbelievable." In a Western Conference contest Tuesday night, Jonathan Quick posted 35 saves to notch his second shutout of the playoffs as the defending champion Los Angeles Kings blanked San Jose 2-0. Canadian Chris Kunitz also notched a goal and an assist, and Paul Martin and Pascal Dupuis scored singles for the Penguins, who finished two-for-four on the power play and also had a short-handed goal."It was a good start," said Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby. "The Senators have skill and created chances but we did a good job of playing the way we wanted to." Colin Greening scored the only goal for Ottawa, who were coming off an physical and emotionally-draining five-game series victory over rival Montreal Canadiens in the first round. Game two of this series is scheduled for Friday in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh's Martin and Senators' Greening traded goals in the first few minutes of the opening period to make it 1-1. But it was all Pittsburgh from there, as the Penguins scored three unanswered goals, starting with Malkin's tally at 12:15 of the first. Pittsburgh's power play struck again late in the second when Kunitz scored from in close, giving the Penguins a 3-1 lead that they would take into the start of the third. Canadian forward Dupuis faked a pass to Matt Cooke on a two-on-one break before beating Ottawa goaltender Craig Anderson over the right shoulder to give the Penguins a commanding three-goal lead with 8:36 remaining. Quick, who is in the running to be the USA's goaltender at next year's Winter Olympics in Russia, made 16 saves in the third period Tuesday to help the Kings draw first blood against San Jose in the best-of-seven second round series. Slava Voynov and Mike Richards scored a goal and an assist each for the Kings, who have won 11 straight games at Staples Center arena. Antti Niemi made 18 saves for the sixth-seeded Sharks, who swept the Northwest Division-champion Vancouver Canucks in the opening round. From: AFP