Pittsburgh, PA -- (Sports Network) - Evgeni Malkin scored twice and added an assist, as Pittsburgh doubled up Philadelphia, 4-2, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals from Mellon Arena.

Sidney Crosby and Petr Sykora also tallied for the Penguins, who improved to 9-1 in the postseason and have won the first game in each of their playoff series. Pittsburgh also improved to 6-0 on home ice.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves to earn his ninth win.

Mike Richards scored twice for the Flyers, who fell to 8-5 on the playoff year. Martin Biron had an uncharacteristically off night in net, allowing four goals on only 21 shots in the loss.

Philadelphia missed the impact of veteran defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who is likely lost for the remainder of the playoffs with a blood clot in his left leg.

Game 2 is scheduled for Sunday in Pittsburgh.

After stinging the visitors with a goal late in the opening 20 minutes of play, Malkin made it 4-2 on a short-handed goal with 4:50 played in the second.

The Russian was obliterated by Richards on a hit behind the Flyers' net seconds before, but a turnover and Sergei Gonchar's lead pass found him waiting alone at the Philadelphia blue line. He skated in uncontested and unleashed a slap shot from 20 feet which Biron saw but was powerless to stop.

"I didn't have a lot of time to think about what to do," said Malkin through a translator. "I had a few seconds to think and I decided to shoot as hard as I can."

Added Crosby: "It worked. If it were my shot, I'd do the same thing."

From there, the Penguins put the clamps on the Flyers defensively, holding the visitors to seven shots in the middle period and nursing the two-goal lead to intermission.

Although they were awarded a power play just after the midway point in the third, the Flyers didn't capitalize. Though they outshot their hosts 9-4 in the final period, their best chance to creep within a goal came when Randy Jones clanged a point drive off the crossbar in the final minutes.

"You turn the puck over and give up rushes against Crosby and Malkin, that's the game you can't play," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "We did that. Every time you get an odd-man rush, or I call it a 'stressed attack,' it favors them. Those are the things we can't do."

The Pens struck for the game's first goal 6:19 into the contest, as Crosby dished from the left circle to the right wing for Sykora, who moved to the backhand and lifted a shot over Biron.

Philly tied the game at 8:30, when Richards circled the net from left to right and slipped a wraparound past Fleury.

Richards netted his second with 7:10 to play in the first, as he emerged from a scrum with a loose puck and lifted it under the crossbar for a 2-1 Flyers edge.

One minute, 21 seconds later the game was tied again. Biron sent a clearing pass behind one of his defenseman up the left side boards. Hossa met the puck halfway to the point, and his feed towards the net deflected off Crosby in the slot and slithered through Biron.

Pittsburgh then took a 3-2 lead with 6.5 seconds to play, as Malkin was barely onside to accept a Ryan Whitney feed and fire home a wrister from the right circle.

"We did a great job. It was kind of odd early on how that first period went," Crosby said. "So many goals, and that's usually uncharacteristic of the playoffs to make mistakes like that early on. But we did a great job capitalizing and as the game went on we maintained that speed."

Game Notes

This is the fourth playoff meeting between the teams, with Philly winning the previous three in 1989, 1997 and 2000...The Penguins were without forward Maxime Talbot, still bothered by a foot injury suffered in the previous series...Jaroslav Modry dressed in Timonen's place, finishing the game with an even plus-minus rating...Flyers forward R.J. Umberger, who leads all Eastern Conference players with nine goals, was held to one shot on net...Richards led all players with five shots...Neither team capitalized on five combined power- play chances...The Penguins have won 14 in a row at home, dating back to the regular season.