UNIONDALE, N.Y. – Eric Lindros’ goal and assist sparked a three-goal spurt within 1:38 of the first period, and the New York Rangers hung on for a 3-2 victory Saturday over the New York Islanders.

Chris Simon and Martin Rucinsky also scored for the Rangers, who rebounded from two poor losses this week against Calgary and Carolina to stretch their unbeaten streak against the Islanders to 5-0-2.

Avalanche 4, Stars 2

DALLAS – Alex Tanguay scored two of Colorado’s three power-play goals in the second period and the Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 4-2.

Milan Hejduk and Adam Foote each added a goal and an assist for the Avalanche.

Canadiens 8, Penguins 0

PITTSBURGH – Sheldon Souray set a Montreal single-game record for points by a defenseman with a goal and five assists, and Canadiens rookie Michael Ryder had two goals and two assists in an 8-0 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Souray broke the team record of five points by defensemen Doug Harvey and Lyle Odelein, assisting on each of Montreal’s first five goals .

Sharks 5, Thrashers 2

SAN JOSE, Calif.- Evgeni Nabokov made 31 saves to earn his 100th career win and the San Jose Sharks scored three first-period goals to hand the Atlanta Thrashers their sixth straight defeat, 5-2.

Devils 1, Maple Leafs 0

TORONTO – Martin Brodeur made 25 saves for his league-leading ninth shutout of the season, and Brian Gionta scored in the first period in the New Jersey Devils’ 1-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The win was the defending Stanley Cup champion Devils’ first in regulation since they beat Pittsburgh 2-0 on Dec. 27 – a span of seven games.

Oilers 3, Flyers 0

PHILADELPHIA- Tommy Salo made his first shutout of the season look easy.

Salo stopped 26 shots for his 35th career shutout and 200th NHL win in the Edmonton Oilers’ 3-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Mike York had a goal and an assist, and Raffi Torres and Shawn Horcoff also scored for the Oilers, who snapped a two-game losing streak.

“We’re out of the playoffs right now,” Salo said. “We have to get going in the second half and try to make sure we catch the other teams.”

Edmonton is last in the Northwest Division, four points behind Nashville and Los Angeles, who are tied for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Philadelphia coach Ken Hitchcock questioned the Flyers’ effort.

“It’s very frustrating to the coaching staff when you need people to pay the price,” Hitchcock said. “Some guys are just quite frankly not doing it and that is disappointing.”

Philadelphia is 0-3-1 in its last four games and has been held to one goal or less in three of those.

“We were outworked and outplayed,” said Mike Comrie, who played in his eighth game of the season after coming over from the Oilers in a trade. “Being a professional, you have to play through things and worry about only trying to get a win.”

Salo’s best save came midway through the second period when he made a diving, sprawling stop of a shot by Michal Handzus on a power play. He was also brilliant early in the game, stopping five of the Flyers’ first seven shots from point-blank range.

“Salo played terrifically tonight in his 500th game,” Edmonton coach Craig MacTavish said.

Salo has started eight of the Oilers’ last nine games since returning from a hip injury.

“Tommy didn’t get a lot of shots early, but they were one-on-one confrontations with the goalie,” MacTavish said. “So he had to make some big saves for us early to keep it scoreless.”

MacTavish said that it was one of the Oilers’ best overall games of the year.

“I thought we checked as well as we checked all year long,” he said.

Torres put the Oilers ahead 1-0 at with five minutes left in the first period. Edmonton came down on a 3-on-2 rush and Torres redirected a cross-ice pass from York into the goal.

Horcoff picked up a loose puck and flipped it past Robert Esche at 11:36 of the third period to make it 2-0. York scored on a deflection 4:03 later.

The Oilers entered last in the league in penalty killing, having stopped just 44 of opponents’ 189 opportunities, but stopped all five of Philadelphia’s power plays – including a pair of two-man advantages spanning 3:24. The Flyers came in with the league’s top power play.

Notes: Edmonton played the fifth of a six-game road trip that ends at Washington on Sunday. … Edmonton was without D Jason Smith (sprained ankle). … The Flyers have won one of their last five against the Oilers in Philadelphia (1-3-1). … The Flyers were without C Keith Primeau (broken thumb) and D Joni Pitkanen (head injury).

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73 career shutouts, 30 short of Terry Sawchuk’s NHL record.

New Jersey scored the only goal of the game with 57 seconds left in the first. Jay Pandolfo made a drop pass to Scott Niedermayer, who took a backhander, and Gionta got the rebound and scored.

Toronto’s Mikael Renberg missed a chance from in front of the net when his shot went over the net in the second.

Brodeur made a nice pad save on Gary Roberts in the final two minutes. The Maple Leafs pulled Belfour and put an extra attacker on with a minute left, but they managed just one shot.

Notes: The Maple Leafs are 2-4-2 since their 16-game point streak ended. … New Jersey’s Scott Stevens missed the game with the flu. … George Hainsworth has the record for shutouts in a season. Hainsworth had 22 in the 44-game season of 1928-29. The post-expansion record is 15 set by Tony Esposito in 1969-70. … The game had just five penalties, including a fight between Toronto’s Nathon Perrott and New Jersey’s Rob Skrlac in the first. … Toronto’s Owen Nolan, Alexander Mogilny, Thomas Kaberle, Robert Reichel and Wade Belak were sidelined with injuries.

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om Alyn McCauley.

Niko Dimitrakos capped the big opening period when he grabbed the puck from Ilya Kovalchuk and Garnet Exelby at center ice and then faked a forehand shot and flipped a backhanded shot over Nurminen at the 13:20 mark.

Byron Dafoe took over for Nurminen at the start of the second period. Nurminen finished the game with four saves on seven shots.

Ivan Majesky scored Atlanta’s first goal of the game at 7:09 remaining in the second period on a deflected rebound.

Patrick Marleau extended San Jose’s lead to 4-1 when he scored his 19th goal of the season eight minutes into the third period.

Shawn McEachern added a late goal for the Thrashers and Mike Rathje scored an empty-net goal for the Sharks with five seconds left.

Notes: Marleau tallied his 300th career point in the first period when he contributed the second assist on Korolyuk’s goal. … Atlanta is 0-3-all-time in San Jose. … Since Oct. 30, San Jose has recorded a 17-5-8-4 mark. … Kovalchuk has produced 12 points (four goals and eight assists) in his last eight games. … Atlanta is 0-for-18 on the power play in its last five games. … Sharks right wing Jonathan Cheechoo left the game in the first period with an upper body injury and didn’t return. … The Thrashers’ second-leading scorer Marc Savard sat out his second straight game with a concussion.

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season on the power play late in the first, then teamed with Souray to set up Mike Ribeiro’s ninth goal with Montreal on a 5-on-3 power play early in the second resulting from penalties on Josef Melichar and Eric Meloche.

The Penguins were never in the game after failing less than two minutes later to convert their own 5-on-3 advantage that lasted just over a minute, with Montreal scoring two more power-play goals – by Richard Zednik and Joe Juneau – in the final nine minutes of the period.

Jose Theodore had an easy day in goal, helping the Canadiens bounce back from a 4-1 loss Thursday at home to Tampa Bay. He turned aside 25 shots in his fifth shutout of the season and the 22nd of his career, moving him into seventh place in club history.

Ribeiro also had three assists in Montreal’s third one-sided victory over Pittsburgh in as many games this season. Montreal twice beat Pittsburgh 4-1 in Montreal. The Canadiens have eight power-play goals against Pittsburgh’s 29th-ranked penalty-killing unit in the three games.

The Penguins have won only twice in their last 13 games and have been outscored 23-2 in losing their last four home games and 13-0 in their last two, falling 5-0 Monday to Toronto. Saturday’s loss was Pittsburgh’s second worst of the season; the Penguins lost 9-0 to Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg on Nov. 8.

Notes: Montreal has won four of its last five in Pittsburgh. … The Canadiens’ 40-28-13 record in Pittsburgh is the best of any opposing club. … Montreal is 4-1-1 overall in its last six. … Luckily for the Penguins, it was their only home game all season that wasn’t televised. … Pittsburgh’s worst home loss since joining the NHL in 1967 was 9-0 to New Jersey on Oct. 28, 2002.

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lead with 7:05 left.

Scott Young and Jason Arnott scored in the third for Dallas, which then pulled Turco from the net after going on a power play with 2:26 left.

Young’s power-play goal with 14:48 left was the first for the Stars in five games. They had been 0-for-18 in January, including three first-period chances.

Dallas had a second-period goal disallowed when Bill Guerin, another of the Stars’ All-Stars, was called for goalie interference. Brenden Morrow’s shot appeared to be in the net before Guerin ran into Aebischer, but the official immediately ruled no goal.

Mike Modano, the Stars’ captain and other All-Star, missed his fourth straight game with a groin injury.

Notes: Stars D Jon Klemm was scratched because of a slight groin injury, missing the game against this former team … Before winning both regular games this season against Dallas, the Avalanche were winless in their previous seven in the series (0-4-3) … Young has three goals in three games after just two the previous 36 games.

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longest active run. He is expected to be out four to six weeks because of a sprained knee. … Islanders D Eric Cairns missed his third straight game because back spasms. … The Rangers have had seven three-goal periods this season. … The Islanders are 1-8-1 at home against the Rangers since Dec. 23, 1999.

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