Blues Beat Sabres to Catch the Kings

After digging themselves quite a hole, the St. Louis Blues find themselves back in the thick of the playoff race.

Petr Cajanek had a goal and two assists, and Reinhard Divis made 18 saves, leading the Blues to a 5-1 victory over the Sabres on Sunday night in Buffalo, N.Y.

The Blues, who have won two in a row following a seven-game winless streak, moved into an eighth-place tie with the Kings in the Western Conference. Both teams have 73 points, but the Blues have more victories -- the first tiebreaker. The Kings have 15 games left, the Blues 14.

“There’s nothing righted yet, but this is how we need to play,” said St. Louis center Doug Weight, who had two assists. “We still have a lot of work to do, but if we play like this we’ll be successful.”

Dallas Drake, Chris Pronger, Pavol Demitra and Mike Sillinger also scored for the Blues, who have not lost to Buffalo since Oct. 1, 1997, a stretch of 10 games (8-0-2).

Dallas 4, San Jose 0 -- Marty Turco made 22 saves for his 19th career shutout, and the Stars set a franchise record by extending their home unbeaten streak to 14 games. Turco established a career high with his 32nd victory, preserving his seventh shutout of the season by stopping Nils Ekman on a breakaway with two minutes left in the second period.

The Stars are 10-0-4 in their last 14 home games, tying the Philadelphia Flyers for the NHL’s longest home unbeaten streak this season.

Calgary 7, Colorado 1 -- Oleg Saprykin scored two goals, Craig Conroy had a goal and two assists and the visiting Flames handed the Avalanche its worst loss of the season. Miikka Kiprusoff had 21 saves for Calgary, while Colorado’s Philippe Sauve stopped only 26 of 33 shots.

Minnesota 1, Phoenix 1 -- Brent Johnson, in his first game with the Coyotes since being acquired from St. Louis, made 30 saves against the visiting Wild. Minnesota is 0-2-19 in overtime, five ties short of Philadelphia’s 34-year-old league record.

Edmonton 4, Chicago 3 -- Jarrett Stoll scored 44 seconds into overtime, giving the Oilers the road victory. Stoll’s shot from 30 feet glanced off the glove of Blackhawk goalie Matt Underhill, hit the crossbar and deflected into the net.

Pittsburgh 7, New York Rangers 4 -- Konstantin Koltsov and Ryan Malone scored less than a minute apart late in the third period at Madison Square Garden, lifting the Penguins to their first winning streak since December. Koltsov ended a 4-4 tie with 6:27 left, and Malone stretched the lead 53 seconds later for Pittsburgh, 4-2-1 since breaking an 18-game losing streak.