OTTAWA - Completing their first postseason sweep since 1992, the Penguins put the broom to the host Senators last night with a 3-1 victory in Game 4 at Scotiabank Place.

In their first four-game playoff victory since storming past Chicago for the 1992 Stanley Cup, the Penguins advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals where they would play the New Jersey-New York Rangers winner, or a victorious Washington or Boston.

They kept the puck in Ottawa's end and the shots flying toward Martin Gerber most of the game. They held a 30-13 advantage in shots through two periods, a time in which the Senators didn't manage a shot on net for 10 minutes, 12 seconds over the first and second periods.

The series triumph also marked their first in the playoffs since May 2001, when Darius Kasparaitis' overtime goal in Game 7 defeated Buffalo in the second round.

Evgeni Malkin got the scoring started early in the second period on the power play.

After the Penguins gathered 14 shots to five for Ottawa, which went the final 6:41 of the first period with nary a shot on Marc-Andre Fleury, the Senators opened the second with an ill-advised penalty that became their trademark and their undoing in this series. Dany Heatley, part of the restored top line with Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson, was called for slashing defensive defenseman Brooks Orpik just 52 seconds into the second period. A Sergei Gonchar shot was sent across the crease by Crosby to Malkin, who followed his own rebound with a one-hand backhand past Gerber at 1:40 for a 1-0 lead.

Ottawa tied it nearly eight minutes later, when a Wade Redden shot caromed around the crease until Cory Stillman plopped it in at 10:31 for a 1-1 deadlock.

The visitors quickly regained the lead, 2-1, at 15:28, Jarko Ruutu taking a Tyler Kennedy pass deep into Ottawa's end and scoring on a backhand off a spinner-rama move.

It removed considerable pep from the host team when replay officials ruled - after a lengthy review -- that Ottawa's Antoine Vermette made a distinct kicking motion to put in what appeared to be the tying goal, off some dandy Nick Foligno stickhandling around Ryan Whitney and Ryan Malone, at 17:01 of the second period.

Sidney Crosby scored an empty-netter to seal it with 7.5 seconds left.