Sabres beat Islanders in the return of Nolan

Ryan Miller made 29 saves and Maxim Afinogenov had a goal and an assist to give the Sabres a 3-1 win over the New York Islanders on Monday, in the return of former Sabres coach Ted Nolan to Buffalo, N.Y.

Paul Gaustad and Jochen Hecht also scored for the Sabres, who have won five of their last six and beat the Islanders for the sixth consecutive time.

Jason Blake scored for the Islanders in the third period, ending their team-record scoreless streak at 186 minutes 31 seconds. New York has lost three straight, the first two in shutouts.

Nolan, the Islanders’ coach, guided the Sabres for two years, and was the NHL’s coach of the year in 1997. He left after rejecting Buffalo’s one-year contract offer after the 1996-97 season.

Atlanta 3, Ottawa 2 -- Slava Kozlov beat Ray Emery with a backhander between the legs on a breakaway 1:48 into overtime to give the visiting Thrashers the victory.

Atlanta’s leading scorer, Marian Hossa, got his third assist of the game on Kozlov’s winner. He also set up second-period goals by Ilya Kovalchuk and Kozlov to end his former team’s four-game winning streak.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 33 shots for the Thrashers.

Phoenix 3, Washington 2 -- Owen Nolan had a goal and an assist in a three-goal first period at Washington, and the Coyotes earned their third straight win and have won four of five overall.

The Coyotes got man-advantage goals from Nolan and Shane Doan sandwiched around Keith Ballard’s even-strength score.

Toronto 5, Boston 1 -- Mats Sundin scored twice and had an assist at Toronto to lead the Maple Leafs to only their fifth victory in 17 games. Kris Newbury scored his first NHL goal, and Hal Gill and Jeff O’Neill also scored for Toronto.

Colorado 5, Nashville 3 -- Wojtek Wolski scored two goals and Joe Sakic had three assists at Nashville to help the Avalanche end a three-game losing streak.