St. Louis Helps Lightning Eliminate Islanders, 3-2

Martin St. Louis sent the Tampa Bay Lightning into the second round of the playoffs with a flick of the wrist.

The NHL scoring champion scored from the left circle 4:07 into overtime Friday night in Tampa, Fla., giving the Lightning a 3-2 victory that eliminated the New York Islanders in the opening round for the third year in a row.

The Lightning, the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, took the best-of-seven series in five games. They will play the lowest-seeded team remaining in the conference semifinals.

Nikolai Khabibulin failed in his bid for an NHL-record fourth shutout in the series but finished with 24 saves -- two in overtime before St. Louis ended it by lifting the Lightning’s only shot of the extra period over the glove of Rick DiPietro.

Oleg Kvasha scored on a power play for New York midway through the first period, ending a drought against Khabibulin, who hadn’t given up a goal to the Islanders since early in the third period of Game 2.

Khabibulin tied a league record with his third shutout of the series Wednesday night and stopped 113 of 115 shots in the first four games.

Toronto 2, Ottawa 0 -- Ed Belfour stopped 21 shots at Toronto for his 14th career playoff shutout, and the Maple Leafs shut out the Senators for the third time in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

Tie Domi and Joe Nieuwendyk scored third-period goals for the Maple Leafs, who also won Games 3 and 4 of the best-of-seven series with shutouts. Toronto leads the series, 3-2. The Maple Leafs, who played without injured Mats Sundin, have eliminated the Senators from the playoffs three times in four years.