MONTREAL — Evgeni Malkin scored a power-play goal 1:16 into the third period and Marc-Andre Fleury made 18 saves for his fourth NHL playoff shutout, lifting the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night and a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Malkin took Sergei Gonchar's pass and fired a one-timer from the right side past Jaroslav Halak to give the Penguins a 1-0 edge. Alex Goligoski also assisted on Malkin's fifth goal of the playoffs, but first since Game 4 of the Penguins' first-round win against Ottawa.
Pascal Dupuis scored into an empty net with 15 seconds remaining to seal the victory.
Fleury slid across to make a left pad stop on Michael Cammalleri's shot from the right side with 7:33 remaining. He stuck out his right pad to thwart Tomas Plekanec's redirection on Cammalleri's centering feed during a Canadiens power play late in the third. It was Fleury's first playoff shutout since a 6-0 win over Philadelphia on May 18, 2008.
Pittsburgh outshot Montreal 25-18, including 13-3 in the second.
Halak stopped 23 shots for the Canadiens, who have lost seven of eight playoff games at home, including three of four this year.
Game 4 is Thursday night in Montreal. Game 5 is scheduled for Saturday in Pittsburgh, where the teams split the first two games of the series.
Veteran right winger Bill Guerin didn't play for the Penguins, who were already without center Jordan Staal for a second straight game. Guerin has an undisclosed injury and is listed as day to day.
Mark Letestu made his playoff debut on the Penguins' fourth line with Tyler Kennedy and Matt Cooke.
Each team had one power-play opportunity in the first period. Canadiens right winger Brian Gionta had four shots as Montreal held a 7-3 advantage in the opening frame. Two Canadiens' shots came with the man advantage after Goligoski was called for tripping 4:22 in.
Canadiens center Maxim Lapierre, sent off for goaltender interference at 12:24, put a shot off the bottom edge of the crossbar late in the period.
Halak stopped Cooke on a breakaway just over five minutes into the second.
After failing to get a shot on their power play in the first, the Penguins fired a couple of shots at Halak late in their second opportunity midway through the second.
Goligoski had a great scoring chance late in the middle period but was denied by Halak.
Notes
Guerin has three goals and five assists in eight games. … Canadiens D Jaroslav Spacek missed his seventh game because of a virus.