Hot Canadiens Moving Into Playoff Hunt

The Montreal Canadiens, beaten and battered most of the season with an NHL-high 388 man-games lost to injury, are suddenly in the playoff picture.

Jose Theodore made 26 saves and Martin Rucinsky scored twice for Montreal Thursday night as the streaking Canadiens won their fourth straight with a 3-0 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes at Raleigh, N.C.

“We really focused on this game coming in,” Montreal center Trevor Linden said. “This was a huge game for us. When you’re in our position this is as big as it gets.”

The victory moved Montreal within two points of the Hurricanes and six points behind the New York Rangers for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

“We just have to keep it going if we’re going to have a chance at making the playoffs,” said Theodore, who tied Buffalo’s Martin Biron for the NHL lead with his fifth shutout.

It was also the Montreal goalie’s fourth since Jan. 11 and second in less than three weeks against the Hurricanes.

Linden sealed the win for the Canadiens, scoring his ninth goal with 5:36 left. Rucinsky added his 18th less than three minutes later.

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New York Islanders 2, Philadelphia 2--Mark Lawrence scored the equalizer in the third period to give the Islanders a tie at Philadelphia.

Jason Krog also scored for the Islanders, who have lost only once in five games (3-1-1).

Eric Lindros and Keith Jones scored for the Flyers, who have lost only two of their last 22 homes games (14-2-6), but are only 4-6-5 in the second half of the season.

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Colorado 5, New Jersey 5--Scott Niedermayer and Scott Gomez scored third-period goals as the Devils blew a two-goal lead and then rallied from two down to earn a tie with the Avalanche at East Rutherford, N.J.

Colorado’s Peter Forsberg had an assist in his first game back since he suffered a concussion Feb. 1.

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Ottawa 6, Tampa Bay 2--Shawn McEachern, Wade Redden and Grant Ledyard each had a goal and an assist as the Senators won their third straight at Kanata, Canada.

The Senators built a 4-0 lead by the middle of the second period and coasted to victory.

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Vancouver 2, Buffalo 1--Donald Brashear scored the winning goal while prone on the ice at Buffalo.

Brashear’s goal, his 10th, came with 6:14 remaining in the third period. He swiped at the puck while on his belly in the right faceoff circle and the shot got past Biron.

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Around the League

Colorado right wing Adam Deadmarsh returned to Denver to have a rib injury examined by the Avalanche medical staff and will be sidelined indefinitely. Colorado recalled forward Dan Hinote from Hershey of the American Hockey League to replace Deadmarsh. The Avalanche also recalled veteran goalie Rick Tabaracci from Cleveland of the International Hockey League. Tabaracci was brought up because of a neck injury sustained by Patrick Roy on Tuesday at Washington. Roy is listed as day to day. . . . Dallas wing Jere Lehtinen will be out for six weeks after he underwent surgery on his broken right ankle.