updated 11:42 p.m. ET April 9, 2008

PITTSBURGH - The Ottawa Senators must be wondering how many more times this can happen. They get to the playoffs, yet Gary Roberts finds a way to beat them. Again. And again.

Roberts and Petr Sykora scored in the first period and the favored Penguins, determined not to duplicate their awful postseason opener of a year ago, rode Marc-Andre Fleury’s goaltending after that to a 4-0 victory over Ottawa in the Eastern Conference playoffs Wednesday night.

Roberts had two goals while playing on Pittsburgh’s fourth line, only one fewer goal than he had during an injury-interrupted season. Evgeni Malkin, the NHL’s No. 2 scorer, added a goal and two assists.

Pittsburgh, which never recovered from its opening-game 6-3 loss to Ottawa during their five-game series last April, takes a 1-0 lead into Game 2 on Friday night. The Penguins have won their last nine home games.

“It’s a good feeling for us, for sure,” said Roberts, who has 14 of his 32 career playoff goals against Ottawa. “Last year, I think we were in shock after Game 1 in Ottawa, they came out so hard and battled us real hard. But that feeling, I don’t think it’s left in this dressing room.”

Roberts played on Maple Leafs teams that eliminated Ottawa three times during a four-season span from 2001-04 — one reason Ottawa tried but failed to land him at the trading deadline in 2007.

Fleury made 26 saves in his first career playoff shutout, twice stopping Cory Stillman during an extended Ottawa power play late in the second period in which Pittsburgh was down two men for nearly a minute. Fleury is 11-2-1 since returning Feb. 28 from a nearly three-month layoff with a badly sprained ankle.

“For the last 15 games, he has been the best goalie in the National Hockey League, so I am not surprised,” coach Michel Therrien said.

Pittsburgh also was down two men for 50 seconds early in the third, but the Senators — a below-.500 club since their NHL-record 13-1 start — couldn’t get the puck past former No. 1 draft pick Fleury in only his second career postseason victory.

“We had a chance to get back in it, we called a time out and had two great chances (on the first two-man advantage), but we couldn’t score,” Senators coach Bryan Murray said. “We’re pushing to find a goal scorer right now.”

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The Senators were 0-for-7 on the power play.

“Those 5-on-3s have to be automatic,” Jason Spezza said. “They kill you if don’t score on them. We did a good job to get them, we generated a lot offensively ... we got our chances.”

It was a major turnaround from last April, when the Senators jumped on Fleury and the playoff-inexperienced Penguins for a 2-0 lead less than seven minutes into Game 1 in Ottawa and went on to dominate the series despite losing the next game.

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