Penguins overpower Rangers

Somewhere in this scrum of Pittsburgh players is Evgeni Malkin, who scored the go-ahead goal in the second period. (Mike Segar/Reuters)

Evgeni Malkin looked every bit like an MVP at MSG and pushed the Pittsburgh Penguins to the brink of the Eastern Conference finals.

Only hours after Malkin was announced as a Hart Trophy finalist, he scored two power-play goals and added an assist in the Penguins' 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers last night that gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead in the series.

"I'm definitely proud of him," said captain Sidney Crosby, last year's Hart winner. "As a teammate, you always want to see other guys do well. He did that all season. It was a great accomplishment."

The Penguins are 7-0 in the playoffs and can advance into hockey's final four with a win tomorrow night at Madison Square Garden, where they lost all four times they played in the regular season.

The Penguins are still rolling after a four-game sweep of Ottawa in the first round.

"We are in a great position," said forward Marian Hossa, who scored the first goal of the game. "Nobody would think that we would be in this position after three games, but we are greedy. We want to win another one."

Just when it seemed the Rangers were going to blow right past the Penguins, a careless boarding penalty by Ryan Hollweg put Pittsburgh back on the power play. And despite being outshot, 29-13, the Penguins regained the lead when Malkin scored another power-play goal.

New York pressed for the go-ahead score after its two quick ones forged a 3-3 tie. The Penguins were tired in their own zone when Hollweg, a healthy scratch for the first two games of the series, drilled Petr Sykora from behind into the boards.

"It was not too smart on his part," Penguins defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "Because of that, we were able to go into the third period with a lead."

With quick, crisp passes that slid all over the Rangers end during the advantage, the Penguins moved the New York defenders around in exhausting fashion. Crosby's pass nicked Ryan Callahan before getting to Malkin in the right circle.

Malkin took his time and sent a shot into the net off the left post to make it 4-3 with 2:07 left in the second. Last season's rookie of the year has five goals in the playoffs, three in this series.

Pittsburgh is looking to advance to the East finals for the first time since 2001. Only two NHL teams have come back to win a series after trailing 3-0. The 1975 Islanders did it to the Penguins in the second round.

The Red Sox are the only other team in any other sport to pull off the feat, toppling the Yankees in 2004.

Hossa, Georges Laraque, and Malkin scored for Pittsburgh around a goal by New York's Martin Straka in the first period.

Ryan Callahan and Jagr scored 1:04 apart in the second to tie it.

Stars 2, Sharks 1 - Mattias Norstrom scored from the top of the left circle 4:37 into overtime to give host Dallas a commanding 3-0 lead over San Jose in the best-of-seven series.

Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov made several impressive saves in the OT, denying Loui Eriksson twice in the first couple of minutes. The second shot by Eriksson came as he tried to knock in the rebound of Brad Richards's shot that the goalie kicked away.

But Nabokov had too many bodies around him and couldn't see the shot by Norstrom, who scored his second goal in 49 playoff games. He took a pass from Mike Ribeiro and slapped it through the traffic and into the net.

The last time the Stars had a 3-0 series lead was in the first round of the 1999 playoffs, when they swept Edmonton and won the Stanley Cup. This is their 16th postseason series since then.

Red Wings 4, Avalanche 3 - Pavel Datsyuk scored twice and Johan Franzen picked up his sixth goal of the series, giving visiting Detroit a 3-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series over Colorado, which lost leading scorer Paul Stastny to a knee injury in the first period.

The Red Wings can wrap up the series with a win in Game 4 tomorrow night at the Pepsi Center.

Colorado's Peter Forsberg committed a costly penalty in the second period after Andrew Brunette deflected John-Michael Liles's shot from the high slot past goaltender Chris Osgood on the Avalanche's first power play to cut Detroit's lead to 3-2.

Forsberg was assessed a four-minute penalty for high-sticking Mikael Samuelsson, who lost a tooth, and Henrik Zetterberg scored on the power play to make it 4-2.