Rangers punch out Islanders
By The Associated Press

NEW YORK – Jaromir Jagr had a goal and an assist in his return from a groin injury, and Mike Dunham made 30 saves in a fight-filled game to lift the New York Rangers to their fifth straight win over the New York Islanders, 6-2 Thursday night.

Jagr missed two games but made an instant impact by setting up Mark Messier’s goal 2:24 in and then restoring the Rangers’ three-goal lead in the second period.

The Rangers are 5-0 against the Islanders this season, but trail their biggest rival by 11 points in the race for the playoffs. The Rangers (22-27-7-4) are 7-0-2 in their last nine versus the Islanders, games all started by Dunham.

Petr Nedved and Matthew Barnaby also scored in the first for the Rangers, who had dropped three straight. Bobby Holik had a goal and an assist in the third, Alex Kovalev scored and Tom Poti had a career-high four assists.

Canadiens 4, Flames 1

MONTREAL – Pierre Dagenais scored twice and backup goalie Mathieu Garon made 19 saves Thursday night as the Montreal Canadiens ended a season-high four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

Patrice Brisebois and Niklas Sundstrom also scored for Montreal, which ended Calgary’s third four-game winning streak this season.

Jarome Iginla scored his 30th goal for the Flames, who fell short of their first five-game winning streak in seven years.

Capitals 3, Devils 1

WASHINGTON – Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig continued his recent strong play with 43 saves, and Mike Grier, Matt Pettinger and Robert Lang each scored as the Capitals defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-1 Thursday night.

Kolzig is 4-2-2 in his last eight starts despite the fact Washington has allowed at least 30 shots in each of its last 10 games – and 40 shots in five of the last eight. New Jersey held a 44-26 advantage in shots in this game, keeping Kolzig busy after he made 47 saves in Tuesday’s 1-1 tie with Ottawa.

It was Washington’s first game after Wednesday’s trade of longtime Capital Peter Bondra to Ottawa. Several fans began chanting, “We want Peter” when the Capitals started slowly, but the announced crowd of 14,595 changed sentiments and gave Kolzig a huge ovation.

Thrashers 3, Senators 2

OTTAWA – Shawn McEachern scored a power-play goal at 1:12 of overtime to give the Atlanta Thrashers a 3-2 comeback victory over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

Atlanta overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third period, with Ilya Kovalchuk scoring his NHL-leading 32nd goal with 10.1 seconds left and goalie Pasi Nurminen off for an extra attacker.

Jeff Cowan also had a third-period goal.

In overtime, with Senators defenseman Zdeno Chara off for roughing, McEachern shoveled a rebound past Patrick Lalime to give Atlanta its third win in four games.

Leafs 2, Hurricanes 1

RALEIGH, N.C. – Darcy Tucker scored 2:18 into overtime to give the Toronto Maple Leafs a 2-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Bryan McCabe scored a power-play goal in the first period for Toronto, and Mikael Tellqvist made 34 saves for the Maple Leafs.

Sean Hill scored midway through the third period for the Hurricanes, and Kevin Weekes stopped 20 shots.

In overtime, Drake Berehowsky pushed the puck up the ice, then sent a pass to a cutting Tucker between the circles. Tucker was locked up with Erik Cole, but managed to flip the puck past Weekes as he fell into the goalie.

Blues 4, Lightning 3

ST. LOUIS – Doug Weight scored on a rebound at 1:06 of overtime to give the St. Louis Blues a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning for their first three-game winning streak since mid-December.

Dallas Drake had three assists in his 800th career game, helping set up Weight’s third overtime goal of the season. The Blues, who also got goals from Christian Backman and Eric Boguniecki, hadn’t won three in a row since they took six straight from Dec. 6-18.

They’ve also scored four goals in consecutive victories, reviving an offense that had gone since Jan. 15 without scoring that many.

Cory Stillman got his 18th goal and had an assist for the Lightning, who lost for the second time in 13 games (10-1-1-1). The only loss in regulation during that stretch was 2-1 at Washington on Feb. 3 and they’ve scored at least a point in 19 of their last 21 games.

Stillman has 21 points in his last 14 games.

Weight scored for the second straight game after ending a 13-game goal drought, beating Nikolai Khabibulin from the right side of the net on the rebound of Eric Weinrich’s slap shot. Drake began the play by passing the puck out to the point.

Those were the only shots of the extra period as the Blues won their NHL-high ninth overtime game of the season. They’ve won 10 in a row at home against the Lightning.

Boguniecki and Bryce Salvador scored third-period goals for the Blues. Pavel Kubina’s 14th goal, coming only 1:13 after Salvador scored on a break-in, had tied it at 12:41.

Notes: Blues C Pavol Demitra returned to the lineup after missing nine games with a hip injury. Restored to the top line with Keith Tkachuk and Scott Mellanby, he had two shots. … The Blues haven’t lost at home to the Lightning since Oct. 13, 1992. The teams tied 2-2 Nov. 28 at Tampa. … Osgood is 14-0 for his career against the Lightning. … The Lightning are 27-0-1-3 when scoring three or more goals. They’ve scored three or more in 13 of their last 15 games.

AP-ES-02-19-04 2247EST