Flashing his old brilliance, Evgeni Malkin scored two goals and set up two others and the Pittsburgh Penguins pushed the New York Rangers to the brink of playoff elimination with a 5-0 victory Thursday night.
Malkin, whose four points tied his single-game high in the postseason, assisted on two of the Penguins' three first-period goals in helping Pittsburgh dominate the Rangers for the second consecutive game and take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven, first-round series.
Sidney Crosby, who added two assists, and the red-hot Penguins can wrap up things in Game 5 in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Rookie goaltender Matt Murray, who returned to the lineup for Game 3, made 31 saves in posting his first playoff shutout.
Eric Fehr, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary also scored as the Penguins tallied four times on 18 shots against Henrik Lundqvist, who was lifted early in the second period.
Pittsburgh converted 3 of 6 power plays, and is 7 of 19 in the series with the extra man.
The Rangers, who have lost five straight home playoffs games dating to last season, came into Game 4 vowing to pick things up after being totally outplayed in a 3-1 loss Tuesday night.
