Oilers Win and Move Past Kings

The Edmonton Oilers extended their winning streak to four games with a 5-2 victory over the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks on Sunday night at San Jose.

The victory moved the Oilers ahead of the Kings into ninth place in the Western Conference, one point behind St. Louis for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

“We’re in the ninth spot now,” Coach Craig MacTavish said. “We have a great opportunity tomorrow night in L.A. to get that eighth spot.”

Jason Smith scored a short-handed goal to end a 2-2 tie in the second period. He took a drop pass from Mike York and drilled a shot past Evgeni Nabokov.

Nabokov gave up five goals on 27 shots. In his last 10 games, he has given up 31 goals.

Nabokov (26-18-8) is playing more than normal since primary backup Vesa Toskala was injured March 13 against the Kings.

New York Islanders 3, Tampa Bay 0 -- Michael Peca and Adrian Aucoin scored 2:46 apart late in the third period and Rick DiPietro made 29 saves for the Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

New York stretched its lead for eighth place in the Eastern Conference to six points over Buffalo. Both clubs play seven more games.

It was the Lighning’s second loss in two days. They have a one-point lead over Philadelphia in the East.

Pittsburgh 4, New York Rangers 3 -- Aleksey Morozov scored a power-play goal with 7.9 seconds left in overtime at Pittsburgh in a game marked by the ejection of Ranger captain Mark Messier.

Pittsburgh is unbeaten in its last six games at home (5-0-1-0), and the Rangers are winless in their last six (0-3-0-3).

Messier was ejected at 6:13 of the second period for spearing defenseman Martin Strbak in front of the Pittsburgh net during a Ranger power play. Messier, also given an automatic game misconduct, cannot return to the lineup until a hearing is held on the penalty, according to league policy.

Phoenix 2, Chicago 2 -- Mike Comrie’s power-play goal midway through the second period gave the Coyotes, who rallied from a two-goal deficit, a tie at Chicago.

Comrie poked the puck into a half-empty net after Michael Leighton made a save on Paul Mara’s shot from the slot. The rebound went to Dan Cleary, who fed a cross-ice pass to Comrie.

Cleary also scored for the Coyotes, whose winless streak reached 15 games (0-8-4-3). The Blackhawks are 2-6-3-1 in their last 12 games.

Columbus 5, Vancouver 4 -- Nikolai Zherdev scored his second goal of the third period with 1:55 left at Vancouver to help the Blue Jackets end an eight-game losing streak.

Zherdev, a 19-year-old playing his 50th NHL game since going to Columbus from Russia midway through the season, also had two assists to set a career high with four points.