Yashin’s Career Night Gives Islanders Boost

Alexei Yashin’s biggest game of the season firmed up the New York Islanders’ drive to the playoffs -- and all but ended Montreal’s.

Yashin scored twice and tied a career high with five points to lead New York to a 6-3 victory over the Canadiens on Thursday night at Montreal.

After getting only 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. It was the fifth five-point game of his career.

Jason Blake also scored and Garth Snow made 32 saves for New York, which got its 78th point to tie Boston for seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Donald Audette, Andreas Dackell and Jason Ward scored for Montreal, which lost its third straight and is winless in its last seven home games.

A significant portion of the sold-out Bell Centre crowd of 21,273 booed throughout the singing of the Star Spangled Banner before the game.

Colorado 2, San Jose 0 -- Patrick Roy made 29 saves in his fourth shutout of the season, and 65th of his career, to help the Avalanche win at Denver in a game postponed 24 hours because of a heavy snowstorm.

Bates Battaglia and Adam Foote scored for the Avalanche, which won for the first time in three games.

Phoenix 3, Edmonton 2 -- Teppo Numminen scored the game-winner with 2:07 left in overtime for the Coyotes at Phoenix. The Coyotes have won three in a row and moved within eight points of the Oilers for the last playoff spot in the Western Conference. The teams play again in Edmonton next Wednesday.

With the game tied 2-2, Numminen took a pass from Shane Doan off the right boards and beat Tommy Salo from between the circles to give the Coyotes the win.

Washington 4, Calgary 1 -- Sergei Gonchar scored two goals for the Capitals at Calgary, Alberta. Washington is 7-1-1-2 in its last 11 games.

Calgary’s Jarome Iginla scored his 35th goal and 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.

Philadelphia 4, Pittsburgh 2 -- John LeClair scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the third period, as the Flyers won at Philadelphia and moved into a first-place tie in the Atlantic Division. The Penguins blew a 2-0 lead and fell to 0-13-1 in their last 14. It is Pittsburgh’s longest winless streak since its franchise-record 0-17-1 slump in the 1982-83 season.

Columbus 4, Toronto 3 -- Tyler Wright scored his third goal of the game off a give-and-go from Ray Whitney with 43.8 seconds left in overtime for the Blue Jackets at Columbus, Ohio. Wright hadn’t scored in 18 games.

Vancouver 7, Nashville 3 -- Rookie Brandon Reid scored his first two NHL goals and added an assist in his second game for the Canucks at Vancouver, Canada.