NHL

Yashin leads Islanders

MONTREAL -- Alexei Yashin's biggest game this season firmed up the Islanders' playoff drive and all but ended Montreal's.

Yashin scored twice and tied a career high with his fifth career five-point game to lead New York to a 6-3 victory.

After getting eight points in his previous 22 games, Yashin set up goals by Arron Asham and Oleg Kvasha before scoring his 17th and 18th goals of the season in the second. He set up Dave Scatchard's empty-net goal for his third assist of the game.

"I feel very good about it, but most importantly we got the win," Yashin said. "I'm more happy about that than scoring five points."

Jason Blake also scored and Garth Snow made 32 saves for New York, which has 78 points to tie Boston for seventh in the East.

A significant portion of the Bell Centre crowd of 21,273 booed during the Star Spangled Banner before the game in an apparent display of their displeasure with the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

FLYERS 4, PENGUINS 2: John LeClair scored twice, including the winner in the third period, as host Philadelphia moved into a first-place tie in the Atlantic. Eric Desjardins and Tony Amonte also scored and Mark Recchi had three assists for Philadelphia, which is tied with New Jersey with 93 points.

AVALANCHE 2, SHARKS 0: Patrick Roy had 29 saves in his fourth shutout, the 65th of his career, as host Colorado won a game postponed a day because of a heavy snowstorm. The Avalanche snapped a two-game losing streak, its longest since mid-January.

BLUES 3, DUCKS 2 (OT): Pavol Demitra scored twice, including the winner 2:22 into overtime, for host St. Louis. Anaheim's Steve Thomas sent it to overtime with a goal at 11:50 of the second.

COYOTES 3, OILERS 2 (OT): Teppo Numminen scored with 2:07 left in overtime for host Phoenix. Daymond Langkow and Branko Radivojevic scored first-period goals for the Coyotes, who have won three straight and moved within seven points of the Oilers for the last playoff spot in the West.

CAPITALS 4, FLAMES 1: Sergei Gonchar scored two goals to lead visiting Washington. The Capitals are 7-1-1-2 in their past 11 games. Jarome Iginla scored his 35th goal of the season, his 20th in 21 games, before being knocked out of the game with a shoulder injury after he was knocked head-first into the boards by Ken Klee in the second period. The Washington defenseman was assessed a checking-from-behind major and game misconduct.

CANUCKS 7, PREDATORS 3: Rookie Brandon Reid scored his first two NHL goals and added an assist for host Vancouver. Reid, playing his second game after being called up from Manitoba, put the Canucks up 3-0 with his first goal in the first and got another in the second period. Todd Bertuzzi scored his 43rd goal 7:55 into the first to take over the NHL's goal-scoring lead, and linemate Markus Naslund matched him with his 43rd minutes later. The win kept Vancouver six points ahead of Colorado in the Northwest.

JACKETS 4, LEAFS 3 (OT): Tyler Wright scored his third goal off a give-and-go from Ray Whitney with 43.8 seconds left in overtime for host Columbus. Wright's third career hat trick, his second this season, gave him a career-high 18 goals. Toronto's Owen Nolan sent it into OT with 1:12 left.

Weekes delays surgery

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Hurricanes goaltender Kevin Weekes postponed surgery on his injured right hand until after the season.

The former Lightning goalie was scheduled to have the season-ending surgery today but decided to wait after talking with team doctors, team president and GM Jim Rutherford said.

Weekes allowed six goals in his last start against Ottawa on Tuesday. Before that Weekes had three shutouts in four starts. He is 14-21-8 with a 2.45 goals-against average.

BLACKHAWKS: Goaltender Jocelyn Thibault will miss a week with post-concussion syndrome. Thibault was injured against Boston on March9 but was cleared to return and started four games, in which he showed symptoms.

CAPITALS: Goaltender Sebastien Charpentier signed a one-year contract extension with a team option for 2004-05. He has played in 13 games this season (4-6-1) as a backup to Olaf Kolzig.

SABRES: Defenseman Rhett Warrener has an inner-ear imbalance, not a concussion as originally believed, and might be available for Saturday's game against Toronto.

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