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The Ottawa Senators saved their best for last but it was still not enough to prevent the end of their hockey season.

Showing patience and a defensive responsibility that belied the tender years of most of their players, the Pittsburgh Penguins held off the Senators last night for a 3-1 win that gave them a 4-0 sweep of their first-round NHL playoff series.

It was the closest of the four games of the Eastern Conference quarter-final but it also demonstrated the gulf between the teams. Even though they did not light up the scoreboard, the Penguins controlled the play for most of the night.

In the third period, the Senators built on the momentum they established late in the second but could not get the puck behind Penguins goaltender Marc-André Fleury. He was more solid than spectacular but that was all the Penguins needed to nurse their lead.

Then, as the game wound down, so did the Senators. The Penguins were able to keep them on the perimeter, firing long shots that were either blocked by the defence and cleared or turned aside by Fleury.

The Penguins did not mount many counterattacks with their high-powered forwards in the last several minutes of the third period. They were content just to keep the Senators at bay and dump the puck into the neutral zone. Sidney Crosby applied the finishing touch with an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Based on the margin of play, the Penguins' 2-1 lead at the end of the second period should have been far greater. They controlled the puck for almost the entire first 40 minutes and held a 30-13 edge in shots on goal but could not take the game away from the Senators.

Ottawa goaltender Martin Gerber, after a more ordinary outing in the third game, was back to the outstanding play he showed in the first two games of the series.

Once again, former Senator Marian Hossa was Gerber's favourite victim. Hossa had seven shots in the first period, half the Penguins' total, and another one in the second, but the closest he came to scoring was a shot off the goal post.

Actually, the Senators did put the puck in the Penguins' net twice but their second goal was disallowed by the video judges. Shortly after Jarkko Ruutu scored at 15:28 of the second period to give the Penguins a 2-1 lead, Senators centre Antoine Vermette put in a rebound off his foot. However, the eyes in the sky ruled he did so with a "distinct kicking motion," which meant the goal was waved off.

It was a blow to the Senators, but they kept skating hard for the rest of the period, refusing to capitulate. That was a turnaround from several minutes earlier when it looked as though that was just what the Senators were about to do.

By the time Ruutu scored, the Senators were a dispirited group. They tried to come out hard at the opening faceoff, buoyed by the decision of head coach Bryan Murray to reunite the Big line of centre Jason Spezza and wingers Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley.

With Alfredsson out for the first two games of the series with a knee injury, Spezza and Heatley were lost. They became targets for the critics with their poor play and they went into Game 4 with two assists between them.

The reunion did not produce any offensive sparks. Spezza, in particular, was still in a funk and by the end of the second period he was getting booed by the sellout crowd. The Penguins had full control of the game but could not beat Gerber, so the teams went into the second period tied 0-0.

Early in the second period, it looked as though the Penguins were ready to put the series to bed when Heatley took a selfish penalty for slashing. Evgeny Malkin, like Gerber back to his outstanding play after a dip in the third game, wound his way to the Senators' net and matter-of-factly put in his own rebound with one hand to open the scoring.

A few minutes later, the Big line looked especially impotent during a Senators power play, bringing the hosts to their lowest point of the evening.

But the Penguins could not solve Gerber and by the midway point of the second period the Senators were showing some life. Cory Stillman then tied the score when he took a couple of whacks at a rebound and the crowd came to life.

A few minutes after that, however, Spezza made a poor pass back to the point in the offensive zone after a rush fizzled. That set up a long rush by Ruutu, who scored his first goal of the playoffs and the Senators were fighting from behind again.