Three games into his team's opening-round playoff series with the Penguins, Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery hasn't jumped to the top of the statistical heap among NHL postseason teams.

Yet he is 2-1 for a team that is playing solid two-way hockey and can put the Penguins in a deep hole if it can win Game 4 tonight at Mellon Arena.

So much, at least to this point, for Emery being a vulnerability the Penguins needed to exploit in the series.

That was a popular theory after his performance in the regular season, when he was winless at 0-1-2 against the Penguins with a 3.17 goals-against average and an .824 save percentage. Less than a week before the playoffs began, he took the loss in a 3-2 game at home.

Emery is right with those who thought his play in those regular-season games was substandard.

"During the year, I didn't feel that strong about my performances" against the Penguins, he said. "I thought I couldn't do any worse than I did against them."

He disagrees with the part about it affecting him now.

"I don't think I lack confidence, and I don't think as a team we lack confidence."

Proof might have come over the weekend, when he got the win on the road Sunday in Game 3, 4-2, just 24 hours after giving up a couple of soft goals at home in the Penguins' comeback, 4-3 win in Game 2 in Ottawa.

"The second [game], I felt bad," Emery said. "I did everything I could, but they scored some timely goals and our effort kind of went for naught. But, for the most part, I think we've outplayed them.

"I always think with this team that, more often than not, we're going to score three or four goals. If the other team has a couple bursts throughout the game, as long as I can kind of keep it to a minimum, we're going to get our chances and bury most of them."

Observers might have said the same thing about the Penguins, whose 277 goals during the season were third in the Eastern Conference to Ottawa (288) and Buffalo (308).

But the Penguins' scoring chances have withered since the postseason started, thanks in large part to help Emery is getting from Senators skaters at all positions who are forechecking, backchecking and hitting with precision.

Getting that much help from his teammates comes with a price. He could give the Maytag repairman lessons in loneliness, especially in the first two periods.

He has faced fewer than 10 shots in seven of the nine periods. The Penguins are averaging just 11.3 shots in the first and second periods combined.

"It's tough," Emery said of the idle time. "Especially with the players that they have when they get a chance. It's not like they're hitting you in the stomach with their shots. They can pick some corners. It's more of a challenge for me. I've just got to stay on my toes."

In the series, Emery has an .864 save percentage and a 3.02 goals-against average despite facing an average of just 22 shots per game. That's a drop-off from the regular season, when he was 33-16-6 with a 2.47 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage, with five shutouts.

He won the starting job last fall after Dominik Hasek left for Detroit.

But he won over coach Bryan Murray a year ago. That's when Emery, a rookie, had to fill in during the playoffs for Hasek, who had a lingering injury.

"We kept thinking almost on a daily basis that that would be the day [Hasek returned]," Murray said. "I think it affected the room, but I don't know how much it affected Ray. He's a strong guy, and he probably handled it better than I did."

While everyone else wrung their hands and waited for Hasek to get better, Emery backstopped Ottawa to a five-game win against Tampa Bay in the first round. The Senators then fell to Buffalo in five games in the conference semifinals. Hasek never did return.

In his second playoff spring, Emery has toned down the combative tendencies that drew as much attention as anything else -- except, perhaps for the tattoos, hairdos and exotic pets.

All of that seems hidden so far this series but for the eye-popping diamond earrings that look bigger than Hines Ward's.

Emery's numbers this series are hardly as flashy, but he's getting the job done for Ottawa.

He even joined in the fun in Game 3, picking up an assist on a Daniel Alfredsson goal in the second period.

"It's all right," Emery said. "I'd rather let one less in, though."