Penguins down Flyers to close on Stanley Cup final

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The Pittsburgh Penguins scored a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday to move to the brink of the Stanley Cup finals.

The victory gave the Penguins a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference final. The Detroit Red Wings lead the Dallas Stars 3-0 in the Western final.

Ryan Whitney and Marian Hossa put the Penguins 2-0 up in the first period before R.J Umberger pulled one back for Philadelphia.

After a scoreless second period, Ryan Malone and Hossa again made sure of a victory that leaves Pittsburgh just one win away from a place in the Stanley Cup final.

The Penguins have hit their stride in impressive fashion during the postseason with 11 wins from their 12 games so far and they were on top from the outset on Tuesday.

After picking up two wins at home, they repeated their impressive road form shown in the 4-1 series victory over the New York Rangers.

"We did it against the Rangers and we were aiming to do it again and dominate away from home and get at them as quick as we can," said Penguins head coach Michael Therrien.

"The early 2-0 lead took away the emotion that they could go with the crowd -- then it was about keeping it tight," he added. There was little to fault in the Penguins' defensive game as they gave little joy to Philadelphia. The Flyers were restricted to just 18 shots while the Penguins had 25 attempts.

Stuck in a 3-0 hole, Philadelphia have to somehow find their attacking edge if they are to avoid elimination on Thursday.

"We just have to play better, there was no lack of commitment, we have to find a way to play with confidence and execute our game," said Flyers coach John Stevens.

"They are playing with confidence, they won a lot of games in the playoffs and we have to do better under pressure and dig in now."

(Reporting by Simon Evans in Miami; Editing by Peter Rutherford)