PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AFP) - Marian Hossa scored two goals to lead Pittsburgh past Philadelphia 4-1 here Tuesday, pushing the Penguins to the brink of advancing to the National Hockey League finals.

Ryan Malone and Ryan Whitney also scored for the Penguins, who took a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series. Pittsburgh will advance to the Stanley Cup final with a victory in game four here Thursday.

NHL regular-season champion Detroit owns a 3-0 lead over Dallas in the Western Conference final entering game four of that series Wednesday in Texas.

The Penguins became only the fourth team in NHL history to open the playoffs 11-1, a feat no team has achieved since the 1983 Edmonton Oilers, who were swept by the New York Islanders in the final but went on to win five of the next seven Cups and cement Canadian legend Wayne Gretzky as a hockey icon.

Pittsburgh won the 1991 and 1992 Stanley Cups and looks to deny the state-rival Flyers a chance at their first Cups since back-to-back crowns in 1974 and 1975.

Whitney opened the scoring with a power-play goal 5:03 into the game and Hossa scored his seventh goal of the playoffs just 2:38 later, giving Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead.

Philadelphia's R.J. Umberger netted his 10th playoff goal on the power play just one second shy of 11 minutes into the game but the Flyers could not make the red goal light glow again.

Malone added an insurance goal for the Penguins with 10:02 remaining in the third period and Hossa netted an empty-net goal after the Flyers lifted their goaltender for an extra attacker in the final seconds.