OTTAWA — With a wildly offensive second period straight out of the 1980s, Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins moved within one victory of advancing to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Crosby had four points, including two of Pittsburgh's five goals in the second, leading the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins to a 7-4 win over the Ottawa Senators last night and a 3-1 series lead.

Crosby assisted on Evgeni Malkin's power-play goal 11:50 in, the only score of the first period.

Crosby scored two of Pittsburgh's three goals in a 2:25 span early in the second. Matt Cooke scored 12 seconds after Crosby's first goal to make it 3-0, and the Penguins' 22-year-old captain added his fourth goal of the series at 6:12 to chase Brian Elliott.

"I feel like I'm creating things," Crosby said. "That's what I want to do and the puck's gone in."

Chris Kunitz had a goal and two assists, and Maxime Talbot had a goal and an assist as the teams combined for eight goals in the second, one short of the NHL playoff record for goals in a period.

"This was by far the wildest game I've been a part of in the playoffs," said Kunitz, who won Stanley Cups with Anaheim in 2007 and Pittsburgh last season.

Jordan Staal scored in the third period and Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves for his third straight win.

PITTSBURGH 1 5 1 — 7

OTTAWA 0 3 1 — 4

First Period—Pittsburgh, Malkin 4 (Gonchar, Crosby), 11:50 (pp).

Second Period—2, Pittsburgh, Crosby 3 (Kunitz, Gonchar), 3:47. 3, Pittsburgh, Cooke 1 (Talbot), 3:59. 4, Pittsburgh, Crosby 4 (Gonchar, Kunitz), 6:12. 5, Ottawa, Neil 2 (Campoli, Kelly), 7:06. 6, Ottawa, Alfredsson 1 (Karlsson, Cullen), 10:59. 7, Pittsburgh, Talbot 1 (Adams), 12:38 (sh). 8, Ottawa, Cullen 2 (Spezza, Alfredsson), 13:19 (pp). 9, Pittsburgh, Kunitz 1 (Crosby, Guerin), 18:11.

Third Period—10, Ottawa, Spezza 1 (Karlsson, Cullen), 7:37 (pp). 11, Pittsburgh, Staal 1 (Goligoski, Ponikarovsky), 12:27 (pp).

Shots on Goal—Pittsburgh 14-17-11—42. Ottawa 6-14-10—30.

Goalies—Pittsburgh, Fleury. Ottawa, Elliott, Leclaire. A—20,014 (19,153). T—2:45..

RED WINGS 3, COYOTES 0

DETROIT — Jimmy Howard had 29 saves and Todd Bertuzzi, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg scored goals to give Detroit a series-evening victory over Phoenix in Game 4 last night.

Ilya Bryzgalov made 32 saves for the Coyotes. The Vezina Trophy finalist stopped the first 24 shots he faced, then gave up goals on three of the last 10 against him.

PHOENIX 0 0 0 — 0

DETROIT 0 1 2 — 3

First Period—None.

Second Period—1, Detroit, Zetterberg 4 (Kronwall, Rafalski), 15:33 (pp).

Third Period—2, Detroit, Datsyuk 2 (Franzen, Lidstrom), 15:53. 3, Detroit, Zetterberg 5 (Bertuzzi, Stuart), 16:18.

Shots on Goal—Phoenix 9-14-6—29. Detroit 17-9-9—35.

Goalies—Phoenix, Bryzgalov. Detroit, Howard. A—20,066 (20,066). T—2:28.

FLYERS 4, DEVILS 1

PHILADELPHIA — Jeff Carter scored two goals and Danny Briere had one to end their playoff scoring droughts and lead Philadelphia over New Jersey for a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

Carter and Briere were held without a point in the first three games after combining for 114 this season for the Flyers, who have won 17 of 19 playoff series when they hold a 3-1 lead. Game 5 is tomorrow in New Jersey.

NEW JERSEY 1 0 1 — 1

PHILADELPHIA 0 2 2 — 4

First Period—1, New Jersey, Kovalchuk 2 (Parise, Rolston), 12:24 (pp).

Second Period—2, Philadelphia, Carter 1 (Briere, Timonen), 9:08 (pp). 3, Philadelphia, Briere 1 (Coburn), 17:27.

Third Period—4, Philadelphia, Carcillo 2 (Carter, Pronger), 4:10. 5, Philadelphia, Carter 2 (Pronger, Briere), 9:28 (pp).

Shots on Goal—New Jersey 12-8-11—31. Philadelphia 7-12-9—28.

Goalies—New Jersey, Brodeur. Philadelphia, Boucher. A—19,709 (19,537). T—2:28.

PREDATORS 4, BLACKHAWKS 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — David Legwand scored the go-ahead goal and had two assists, leading Nashville past Chicago for the franchise's first 2-1 lead ever in an opening-round series.

The Predators have never won more than two games in any of their first four playoff appearances. Game 4 is back in Nashville tomorrow night.

Joel Ward and Shea Weber also scored for Nashville, and Martin Erat scored on a penalty shot late.

CHICAGO 1 0 0 — 1

NASHVILLE 1 2 1 — 4

First Period—1, Nashville, Ward 1 (Sullivan, Legwand), 13:00. 2, Chicago, Kopecky 1 (Versteeg, Hossa), 17:35 (pp).

Second Period—3, Nashville, Legwand 1 (Sullivan, Klein), 4:00. 4, Nashville, Weber 1 (Dumont, Legwand), 9:52.

Third Period—5, Nashville, Erat 2 (penalty shot), 14:25.

Shots on Goal—Chicago 7-10-10—27. Nashville 13-9-13—35.

Goalies—Chicago, Niemi. Nashville, Rinne. A—16,075 (17,113). T—2:24.

SHARKS 2, AVALANCHE 1

DENVER — Joe Pavelski scored 10:24 into overtime and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 33 shots, lifting San Jose over Colorado and tying the series at two games apiece.

This has been a tightly contested matchup with all four games being decided by a goal, the last three going into overtime.

On his game-winner, Pavelski gathered a loose puck deep in Colorado's zone and beat Craig Anderson with a shot into the right corner.

SAN JOSE 1 0 0 1 — 2

COLORADO 0 1 0 0 — 1

First Period—1, San Jose, Boyle 1 (Clowe, Pavelski), 1:12 (pp).

Second Period—2, Colorado, Stastny 1 (Liles, Yip), 3:27 (pp).

Third Period—None.

First Overtime—3, San Jose, Pavelski 2 (Murray, Clowe), 10:24.

Shots on Goal—San Jose 9-15-10-11—45. Colorado 6-14-8-6—34.

Goalies—San Jose, Nabokov. Colorado, Anderson. A—18,007 (18,007). T—2:52.