Osgood Gives St. Louis a Boost Against Islanders

The biggest emotion the St. Louis Blues felt after defeating the New York Islanders on Saturday was relief.

Former Islander goalie Chris Osgood stopped 39 shots and Keith Tkachuk scored his team-leading 27th goal in the second period to lead the Blues to a 4-2 victory over New York at Uniondale, N.Y.

The victory was the first for the Blues in eight games (1-4-2-1) and gave Coach Mike Kitchen his first NHL victory.

“It wasn’t our best played game and we were a bit nervous in the third period, but we got the win,” he said.

Pavol Demitra, Mark Rycroft and Petr Cajanek also scored for the Blues, who are fighting to stay in contention for a Western Conference playoff spot. St. Louis has reached the postseason 24 seasons in a row.

Newcomer Mike Sillinger chipped in with two assists. “The situation in Phoenix was that we were 14 points out of the playoffs,” he said. “We’re not there yet here, but we’re close, and all I want is the chance to make March interesting.”

Buffalo 5, Toronto 1 -- Derek Roy had two goals and Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists at Toronto as the Sabres improved to 3-0-1 against the Maple Leafs.

Brian Leetch, acquired Wednesday from the New York Rangers, assisted on Tucker’s goal, giving him four assists in two games with Toronto.

New Jersey 4, Carolina 1 -- John Madden had a goal and an assist and Martin Brodeur made 25 saves at Raleigh, N.C., to help the Devils win for only the second time in six games.

Vancouver 4, Columbus 0 -- Johan Hedberg stopped 32 shots for his second consecutive shutout as the Canucks stopped the Blue Jackets at Columbus, Ohio.

Washington 2, Philadelphia 1 -- Power-play goals by Jeff Halpern and Anson Carter lifted the Capitals past the Flyers at Washington.

Boston 2, Atlanta 2 -- Mike Knuble scored a power-play goal with 5:14 left in the third period at Boston to lift the Bruins to a tie with the Thrashers.

Tampa Bay 5, Florida 3 -- Dimitry Afanasenkov, Dave Andreychuk and Cory Stillman scored first-period goals, then the Lightning had to hold off a rally by the Panthers to win at Sunrise, Fla.

Ottawa 4, Nashville 2 -- Peter Bondra scored the game-winning goal with 7:01 left at Ottawa as the Senators ended a two-game losing streak.

*

San Jose put forward Marco Sturm and defenseman Kyle McLaren on the injured list and recalled Brad Boyes and Miroslav Zalesak from the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Cleveland. Sturm was lost for the season when he broke a leg in a game Friday against Colorado. McLaren has missed the Sharks’ last four games because of a serious cut on his face....

The New York Rangers sent forward Chris Simon and a seventh-round pick in this year’s draft to Calgary for goalie Jamie McLennan and forwards Blair Betts and Greg Moore.