Isles sweep Pens

WHILE THE Pittsburgh Penguins were trying to chase down the New York Rangers, they seem to have overlooked the New York Islanders.

Pittsburgh has been trying to catch the Eastern Conference-leading Rangers, and a monthlong stretch in which they barely lost got them within one point with a whole lot of momentum.

A home-and-home set with the also-ran Islanders seemed to be the perfect tonic to keep the Penguins rolling, but they failed to take advantage. After sustaining a rare loss to the Islanders in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, the visiting Penguins did little to change their fortunes in the rematch and were beaten 5-3 on Thursday night.

Now Pittsburgh's hopes of finishing first are nearly gone.

The Penguins trail the Rangers by five points with five games remaining, and New York owns the tiebreaker. Of bigger concern is the Flyers, who are only two points behind Pittsburgh in the race for home-ice advantage in what is shaping up to be an all-Pennsylvania matchup in the first round.

"We're in Buffalo [Friday], and we have big games with Philly, New York, Boston and Philly again," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said. "We're going to try to win every one of those games."

The Islanders (33-33-11), in a 12th-place tie in the 15-team Eastern Conference, took pride in their fight down the stretch and their accomplishment of getting back to .500. New York is playing the spoiler role to the hilt, and in turn helping out the hated Rangers.

"We always play to win, no matter where we are in the standings," said Kyle Okposo, who reached 20 goals for the first time. "We always play with pride. I think the last two games definitely showed that."

The night was already going badly for the Penguins when captain Sidney Crosby left in the second period after he was struck in the nose by a puck and was bloodied. Crosby has missed significant time because of concussion troubles, but he was able to return shortly after. He didn't need stitches, but he sounded very congested when he spoke after the game.

"We didn't do a lot of good things and we paid for it again," Crosby said. "We made some mistakes and they capitalized on it."

In other games:

 * At Newark, N.J., Ilya Kovalchuk and Marek Zidlicky scored in a 1:11 span to cap a four-goal second period and the New Jersey Devils put themselves on the doorstep of a playoff berth with a 6-4 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. New Jersey overcame a hat trick by Ryan Malone of Tampa Bay.

* At Boston, Brooks Laich scored in the first round of a sudden-death shootout to give Washington a 3-2 victory over the Bruins and help the Capitals keep pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Washington is tied with Buffalo with 88 points for the eighth and final playoff spot.

* At St. Paul, Mikko Koivu split two defenders and beat former teammate Jose Theodore 15 seconds into overtime to give the Minnesota Wild a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers.

* At Chicago, Dave Bolland scored the shootout's only goal, in the fourth round, as the Blackhawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-3. Bolland had been 0-for-7 in shootouts this year.

* At Phoenix, Radim Vrbata scored his 31st and 32nd goals and Mike Smith stopped 37 shots as the Coyotes blanked San Jose, 2-0.

*  The Canadiens fired general manager Pierre Gauthier after a dismal season and split with Montreal great Bob Gainey, who is leaving his role as team adviser.

*  The Sabres agreed to a 1-year, entry-level contract with Maine forward Brian Flynn.

* The Sharks signed Western Michigan defenseman Matt Tennyson to an entry-level deal.