PITTSBURGH -- Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots to record his first career playoff shutout, as the Pittsburgh Penguins blanked the Ottawa Senators, 4-0, in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at Mellon Arena.

Gary Roberts scored twice, while Evgeni Malkin posted a goal and two assists for the second-seeded Penguins, who registered their first playoff shutout since April 26, 2001.

Martin Gerber allowed four goals on 35 shots for the seventh-seeded Senators, who will be without the services of captain Daniel Alfredsson and center Mike Fisher throughout the entire series.

Roberts gave the Penguins an early 1-0 lead. Following strong work behind the net, Georges Laraque curled around the far post and threw the puck in the crease, where Roberts slid a backhander past the left pad of Gerber 68 seconds into the contest.

Pittsburgh grabbed a 2-0 lead with 7:32 left in the opening frame. The play started in the defensive zone, as Malkin chipped the puck past Ottawa defenseman Mike Commodore at the right point and streaked down the left wing on a 2-on-1 break with Petr Sykora. As the sophomore stud approached the faceoff circle, he dished across to Sykora, whose one-timer flew by the glove of Gerber.

Ottawa had a two-man advantage for 57 seconds late in the second period, but failed to connect, and the Penguins killed off another lengthy 5-on-3 power play early in the third period to preserve the shutout.

Malkin put the game away with 6:02 left in regulation. The Russian superstar passed to Ryan Whitney along the left boards, drove hard to the net and hammered home Whitney's return feed behind Gerber to give the Penguins a commanding 3-0 lead.

Roberts added a power-play marker with 1:35 remaining to account for the final margin.

Game Notes

Ottawa defenseman Anton Volchenkov left the game with 9:26 remaining in the second period when he was struck in the face by the puck. He did not return...These clubs met in the opening round last year and Ottawa won that series in five games en route to its first-ever trip to the Stanley Cup finals...Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Friday night in Pittsburgh.

Copyright 2008 Courtesy of The Sports Network.