UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Whoever runs the New York Rangers’ bench can coach them past the New York Islanders.

It was Tom Renney’s turn Thursday, one night after taking over as Rangers coach from Glen Sather. His debut couldn’t have gone better in a 6-3 victory over the Islanders.

The Rangers completed their second six-game season series sweep over the Islanders in a campaign that will likely see them miss the playoffs for a seventh straight season. They are 8-0-2 in their last 10 against the Islanders.

Sather stepped down Wednesday as Rangers coach after a 90-game stint over two seasons. He kept his jobs of team president and general manager.

Jaromir Jagr had two goals and an assist, and Chris Simon added two goals. Brian Leetch had a goal and two assists, and Bobby Holik had a goal and an assist as the Rangers swept their area rival for the third time.

Just like last Thursday, the Rangers jumped to a big lead and then fought the Islanders.

Eric Cairns matched up again with Rangers defenseman Dale Purinton, who absorbed four punches while on the ice with his head down. When he got back to his skates, he waved Cairns off with his hands, and the Rangers were rewarded for his restraint.

They already led 2-0 and had chased starting goalie Garth Snow when the first batch of violence broke out. Cairns drew 27 penalty minutes and was ejected for instigating the mayhem that also included a bout between Rangers forward Matthew Barnaby and Isles counterpart Eric Godard.

Predators 4, Wild 0

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Dan Hamhuis and Steve Sullivan each scored early power-play goals, and Tomas Vokoun stopped 27 shots Thursday night to lead the Nashville Predators over the Minnesota Wild 4-0.

Vladimir Orszagh added a goal and an assist, Andreas Johansson had a short-handed goal and Martin Erat had two assists for Nashville.

Vokoun got the 12th shutout of his career, and it was his second this season against a Minnesota team that has not scored against the Predators in Nashville since March 6, 2003. The Wild outshot Nashville 27-23 but went 0-for-7 on the power play.

Hamhuis got Nashville on the board with his fifth goal of the season with a slap shot that went through Manny Fernandez’s legs at 9:20 of the first.

Minnesota defenseman Willie Mitchell had his chance to tie it late in the first as he took a pass for a breakaway coming out of the penalty box, but he missed the net with a backhander.

Flyers 1, Senators 1

OTTAWA – Sean Burke made 39 saves in the Philadelphia Flyers’ 1-1 tie against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.

Philadelphia is unbeaten in three games following a three-game losing streak, earning its 83rd point to remain one ahead of Ottawa for the Eastern Conference.

Marian Hossa scored his 27th goal on the Senators’ second of three power plays before the midway mark of the opening period. Simon Gagne had a power-play goal for Philadelphia.

The Flyers were outshot 40-18, managing just five shots against Patrick Lalime in each of the first two periods, when Ottawa enjoyed a 25-10 advantage.

Lightning 4, Leafs 3

TAMPA, Fla. – Brad Richards had two goals and an assist and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 Thursday night.

Pavel Kubina and Vincent Lecavalier had the other goals for the Southeast Division-leading Lightning, who have an 18-point lead over second place Florida. Tampa Bay is 13-1-1-4 over the past 19 games.

Lightning goalie Nikolai Khabibulin made 19 saves for his 200th career win (200-183-57).

Alex Mogilny, Mats Sundin and Joe Nieuwendyk scored for Toronto, which has lost three straight. The Maple Leafs have dropped five of eight.

Leafs goalie Ed Belfour missed his eighth consecutive game because of a sprained back. Rookie Mikael Tellqvist made his fifth straight start.

Blues 2, Avalanche 2

DENVER – St. Louis’ Dallas Drake and Keith Tkachuk scored second-period goals to offset two goals by Colorado’s Milan Hejduk, and the Blues and Avalanche skated to a 2-2 tie Thursday night.

Blues goaltender Chris Osgood had 25 saves in the head coaching debut of St. Louis’ Mike Kitchen, who replaced the fired Joel Quenneville on Tuesday. Colorado’s David Aebischer had 19 saves.

In a scoreless third period, Osgood had back-to-back saves off Joe Sakic, the second one a glove save that swiped the puck away from the net.

Each team had only one shot in overtime. A minute into overtime, St. Louis had a goal disallowed when it was ruled that Pavol Demitra had slapped the puck past Aebischer with his hand.

Avalanche forward Alex Tanguay, the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer, sustained an upper-leg injury in the first period and did not return.

Red Wings 2, Flames 1

CALGARY, Alberta – Pavel Datsyuk set up both Detroit goals, including Steve Thomas’ winner late in the second period in the Red Wings’ 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.

Thomas scored the only goal of the middle period, when Detroit was outshot 14-5, to put the Red Wings up 2-0.

Datsyuk started the play by neatly stripping the puck from Flames rookie Matthew Lombardi as he skated out of his zone. Datsyuk sent a backhand pass to the front of the net. Brett Hull slid the puck over to Thomas, who one-timed it past goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff.

That goal came in handy in the third period, when the Flames came on strong. They got a goal from Chuck Kobasew on a hard slap shot at 7:51 remaining.

But goalie Manny Legace stood tall as the Red Wings were outshot 14-5 in the final period. With the Calgary goalie pulled for an extra attacker, Legace sealed the win by getting his toe on a deflected shot by Toni Lydman with just seconds left.

Ray Whitney scored the other goal for Detroit, which concluded a three-game Western Canada road trip with a 1-1-1 record.

Calgary lost its fourth game in its last five and is tied with Los Angeles for seventh place in the Western Conference, two points ahead of St. Louis.

Detroit opened the scoring when Denis Gauthier and Stephane Yelle couldn’t connect on a pass in the Flames’ end. Datsyuk got the loose puck near the blue line, fed a pass in front to Henrik Zetterberg, who in turn set up Whitney at the side of the net.

Notes: Calgary went 0-for-5 on the power-play; Detroit was 0-for-2. … Calgary C Steven Reinprecht missed the game with the flu. … Detroit recalled D Anders Myrvold from Grand Rapids (AHL) and he made his season debut in place of injured Chris Chelios. … Newly acquired LW Ville Nieminen made his debut for Calgary on a line with Dean McAmmond and Shean Donovan… The next game for Detroit D Nicklas Lidstrom will be the 1,000th of his NHL career, all with the Red Wings.

AP-ES-02-26-04 2346EST