Evgeni Malkin scored two power-play goals and added an assist to lift Pittsburgh over the New York Rangers 5-3 and stretch the Penguins' lead in the NHL Eastern Conference semifinal to 3-0 on Tuesday. The Penguins are 7-0 in the postseason, still rolling after a four-game sweep of Ottawa in the first round. Pittsburgh, which lost all four road meetings with the Rangers this season, can advance to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2001 as early as Thursday. New York, which outshot Pittsburgh 39-17, erased a two-goal deficit in the second period. Malkin restored the lead before the frame was finished, then won a key faceoff in the Rangers end that helped set up Ryan Malone's goal that made it 5-3 at 2:30 of the third. Marian Hossa, Georges Laraque and Malkin scored for Pittsburgh around a goal by New York's Martin Straka in the first period. Ryan Callahan and Jaromir Jagr scored 1:04 apart in the second to tie it. Stars 2, Sharks 1, OT: At Dallas, Mattias Norstrom scored from the top of the left circle 4:37 into overtime to give Dallas the victory and a 3-0 lead against San Jose in their series. Norstrom scored his second goal in 47 playoff games when he took a pass from Mike Ribeiro and slapped it through the traffic and past goalie Evgeni Nabokov. 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 went on to win the Stanley Cup. This is their 16th postseason series since then. Dallas can wrap up the series on Wednesday at home. Nabokov stopped 27 shots, including Niklas Hagman's penalty shot with 9:10 left in regulation. Sergei Zubov, whose turnover led to San Jose's short-handed goal by Patrick Marleau in the first period, tied the game in the first minute of the third. Red Wings 4, Avalanche 3: At Denver, Pavel Datsyuk scored twice and Johan Franzen picked up his sixth goal of the series, giving Detroit a 3-0 lead over Colorado in the Western Conference semifinals. The Avalanche lost another star skater when leading scorer Paul Stastny went down with a knee injury in the first period. The Red Wings can wrap up the series with a win Thursday night in Denver. None of the five previous playoff series between the archrivals ever ended in a sweep. The Avs have lost all seven times they played Detroit this season, including three shutouts in the regular season. To advance to the conference finals, they'll have to become the first team in 33 years to overcome a 3
