Lightning, Habs, Devils Aim for Playoffs:

Posted By: William "Bill" Buckington

By The Associated Press

All three teams won home games Thursday night to remain tied for sixth place, seven points ahead of ninth-place Atlanta in the race for the final three spots in the eight-team conference playoffs.

Tampa Bay beat Atlanta 4-3, while New Jersey held off Buffalo 3-1, and Montreal beat Washington 3-2 on Saku Koivu's overtime goal.

"Time is running out," Atlanta coach Bob Hartley said. "We don't have any points to give to anyone. We will need some great performances from everyone."

In other games Thursday night, Eastern Conference-leading Ottawa beat the New York Rangers 4-1, NHL-leading Detroit held off Nashville 4-2, Edmonton shut out Los Angeles 4-0, and Phoenix beat San Jose 5-2.

In East Rutherford, N.J., Brian Gionta scored his New Jersey-leading 41st goal and Martin Brodeur tied Jacques Plante for fourth place on the NHL's career victories list with 437 in the Devils' win over Buffalo.

"We've just been doing the things we have to do individually and collectively in the system we play," coach Lou Lamoriello said. "People are playing their roles."

Zach Parise and John Madden also scored for New Jersey, coming off a 3-2 shootout victory over Ottawa on Tuesday night.

"In the last few games. we've done a good job of playing with intensity, and playing desperate," Gionta said. "That's what we need to do for the next nine games. When we sit back and let other teams take it to us, that's when we get in trouble."

Tim Connolly scored for Buffalo.

In Tampa, Fla., Dmitry Afanasenkov scored two goals for the Lightning, and Tim Taylor and Paul Ranger also scored. Taylor snapped a 28-game goal-scoring drought and Ranger's goal was the first of his 67-game NHL career.

Steve McCarthy, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Bobby Holik scored for the Thrashers.

"We have to take care of our business," Kozlov said. "We have to play much better and we have to win our games. Then we'll see what happens."

In Montreal, Koivu scored his first goal in more than two months to give the Canadiens their fifth straight victory.

Koivu broke in alone on Olaf Kolzig and put a backhand past the Washington goalie with 57.4 remaining in overtime to end his 23-game goal drought.

Washington center Jeff Halpern scored a power-play goal with 2.5 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime. Montreal rookie Chris Higgins scored twice, and Ben Clymer added a goal for the Capitals.

Senators 4, Rangers 1

At Ottawa, Ray Emery made 24 saves and the Senators overcame the absence of top defensemen Zdeno Chara, Chris Phillips and Wade Redden.

Chara (hand) and Phillips (knee) are injured and Wade Redden missed the game to travel to Saskatchewan to be with his ailing mother.

Chris Neil, Patrick Eaves, Dany Heatley and Peter Schaefer scored for the Senators. Fedor Tyutin had the lone goal for the Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist made 28 saves.

Jaromir Jagr, who had four assists Wednesday night in a 5-1 road victory over the New York Islanders to break Jean Ratelle's franchise scoring record, assisted on Tyutin's goal to push his NHL-leading scoring total to 114. Jagr also has an NHL-leading 52 goals, tied with Adam Graves for the team record.

Red Wings 4, Predators 2

At Nashville, Tenn., Brendan Shanahan and Jason Williams each had a goal and an assist in the third period for Detroit.

Tomas Holmstrom and Kris Draper also scored, Steve Yzerman assisted on the two third-period goals and Manny Legace made 32 saves.

Mike Sillinger and Scott Hartnell scored for the Predators. The loss was Nashville's fourth straight and also ended a six-game home winning streak. The Predators' last loss at home was Feb. 9 against Detroit.

Oilers 4, Kings 0

At Edmonton, Alberta, Dwayne Roloson made 20 saves for his first shutout since joining the Oilers in a trade-deadline deal with Minnesota.

Sergei Samsonov, Jaroslav Spacek and Ales Hemsky each had a goal and assist, and Raffi Torres also scored to help the Oilers move into a tie with Anaheim and Vancouver for sixth place in the Western Conference.

The 10th-place Kings lost for third time in four nights.

Coyotes 5, Sharks 2

At San Jose, Calif., Steven Reinprecht scored his tiebreaking second goal on a power play early in the third period for Phoenix.

Mike Johnson had a third-period goal and two assists, and Oleg Kvasha and Mike Comrie also scored. Milan Michalek and Steve Bernier scored for San Jose, ninth in the Western Conference — four points out of a playoff spot.

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