Dupuis powers Penguins to victory

PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby’s broken jaw can take its time healing. The way his teammates are playing, there is no need for the Pittsburgh Penguins star to rush back.

Pascal Dupuis scored twice, Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves, and the top-seeded Penguins opened the playoffs with a 5-0 romp over the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

“It’s one win,” Dupuis said. “We definitely feel good about it, but we’ve just got to put this one behind us and get ready to work for the next one. They’ll definitely look at tape and come out harder, that’s for sure.”

The Islanders will have to if they have any hope of making the series competitive. Making its first playoff appearance since 2007, New York fell behind less than five minutes in and never recovered.

“I thought some guys worked hard and played a good game,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “Again, with our club, we need all 20 guys going and we didn’t have all 20.”

That isn’t an issue for the staggeringly deep Penguins.

Rookie Beau Bennett, enforcer Tanner Glass and defenceman Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh, which had no trouble against the upstart Islanders.

Fleury earned his sixth career playoff shutout while playing behind a defence that appears to have learned a few lessons from last spring’s embarrassing opening-round loss to Philadelphia.

The Penguins have emphasized being responsible on defence all season, knowing their wealth of offensive talent will come to life when needed.

Pittsburgh wasted no time against the Islanders, beating Evgeni Nabokov four times in the first 22 minutes, including goals by Letang and Dupuis 32 seconds apart. That sent Nabokov to the bench after he stopped just 11 shots.

Kevin Poulin came on in relief and surrendered a soft goal to Glass.