Erik Christensen failed to score a goal in the opener of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's second-round playoff series against Hershey.

Didn't get one in Game 2, either.

And when he finally scored during a power play in the third period yesterday, it wasn't nearly enough to prevent the Baby Penguins from losing, 4-1, in Game 3 of their series with the Bears.

But while Christensen's goal didn't have much of an impact on the series -- Hershey has a 3-0 lead and can close it out with a victory in Game 4 at home tomorrow night -- it probably did at least a little for his psyche.

Most observers don't consider going two games without a goal to be much of a dry spell, even for a player with Christensen's offensive pedigree. But Christensen, who is a legitimate candidate to spend next season in the NHL, doesn't assess his personal production by the conventional standards.

"I consider one game, if I don't score, to be a slump," he said. "If I go a game where I don't score, I feel it, even if I played well. I don't take satisfaction in just playing well. I want to contribute [points]."

Christensen didn't do that against the Bears until late in Game 3 and surely was suffering over it, because he is not a guy who takes failure in stride.

"He puts a lot of pressure on himself," Baby Penguins coach Joe Mullen said. "It maybe screws up his mind a little, [leading to him] just thinking too much."

It's scary to imagine, then, what Christensen must have been thinking by the time Game 7 of the Baby Penguins' first-round series against Binghamton rolled around, because he had not scored in the previous nine games.

For a guy who considers one game without a goal to be a slump, nine must be an eternity. Maybe a couple.

Christensen ended his dry spell late in the finale against the Sound Tigers and, nearly five days later, still was visibly relieved to be discussing his drought in the past tense.

"To get one in the biggest game of the year was nice," he said. "My confidence immediately went right back to where it should be."

But while Christensen's confidence might have returned, his scoring touch didn't. Like most Baby Penguins forwards, he has been a virtual non-factor, at least offensively, in the Hershey series.

Christensen is one of the few Baby Penguins with quality offensive credentials; he had 24 goals and 22 assists in 48 regular-season games in Wilkes-Barre, and put up six goals and seven assists in 33 games with the parent club.

"Even in the NHL, I felt like I could score a point a game," Christensen said. "I felt I had the capability to do that if I played my best every night. Obviously, with a little bit of luck, that's possible."

Christensen was promoted to the Penguins three times during the 2005-06 season. He holds apartment leases on both sides of the Commonwealth, which led to some interesting off-ice complications.

"Every time I'd come up, I'd have [spoiled] food in the fridge," he said. "And I have to restock my house every time I'm in a different place."

He hopes to put down something resembling permanent roots in Western Pennsylvania next winter. But while Christensen probably has the skill needed to be in the mix for a top-six job, he is, by trade, a center, and realizes Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are the favorites to hold the top two spots on the depth chart at that position.

"With Malkin and Sid, the competition is pretty tough to have the role I want to have," he said. "They're two unbelievable players, and Sid's already proven that he's going to score every night."

One possible solution would be to shift Christensen to the wing. That's a move he believes he's capable of making, even if he's not terribly eager to try.

"I know a lot of people think that maybe the only way to survive in the organization is if I play wing," Christensen said. "Any player, especially a forward, should be able to adapt to any position."

Mullen agreed that, with Christensen's skating and skill, "you would think" he would be best-suited to a job on one of the Penguins' top two lines. He added, though, that he believes Christensen could be effective in another role.

"He could be a third-line center, because he's not bad defensively," Mullen said. " You want a guy who can play really solid defense but, when there's a turnover, make some plays. I think he's capable of doing that."