Blues Are Making a Move

Two newcomers from Phoenix are helping the St. Louis Blues stay in the playoff hunt.

Mike Sillinger scored two goals and Brian Savage added another as the Blues rallied to earn a 5-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night at St. Louis.

St. Louis, which has reached the playoffs 24 consecutive years, moved a point ahead of the Kings in the race for eighth place in the Western Conference. The Blues’ postseason streak is the longest current run in professional sports.

Columbus, an NHL-worst 5-23-4-2 on the road, has dropped five consecutive games.

The Blues acquired Sillinger and Savage from the Phoenix Coyotes last week in separate deals. In five games, Sillinger has three goals and two assists.

“It’s my job,” the 32-year-old Sillinger said. “It’s like a second life for me. It’s been a tough year for me. I had hernia surgery at the start of the year. I enjoyed it at Phoenix, but coming here and getting a chance for the playoffs, especially at my age, it’s all a player can ask for.”

Savage is also pleased to be on a playoff contender.

“We couldn’t let these two points slip away,” Savage said. “It was desperate times in the third period there and we came through.”

After the Blues took a 2-0 lead on goals by Sillinger and Alexander Khavanov, the Blue Jackets came back to take the lead when Trevor Letowski scored twice and Alexander Svitov added a goal.

St. Louis responded with three goals in the third period.

“They didn’t play desperate until the third period when it was 3-2,” Columbus Coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought they played like a team that was too nervous to make some mistakes. They’re a good hockey team, don’t get me wrong. In the first two periods, I thought they were playing laid back and didn’t want to make mistakes.”

The Blues, 4-0-2 in their last six, went 5-1 against Columbus.

Ottawa 2, Vancouver 1 -- Daniel Alfredsson scored an unassisted goal with nine minutes left, lifting the Senators past the Canucks at Vancouver.

Carolina 5, Tampa Bay 1 -- Sean Hill had two goals and Kevin Weekes made 19 saves at Tampa as the Hurricanes ended the Lightning’s 18-game point streak. Tampa Bay, 26-4-2-4 since Jan. 3, was 14-0-2-2 to record the longest streak this season in the NHL.

Montreal 4, Toronto 3 -- Yanic Perreault scored midway through the third period to lift the Canadiens past the Maple Leafs at Montreal.

Calgary 4, Nashville 4 -- Jarome Iginla scored 31 seconds into the third period and Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 28 shots in helping the Flames salvage a tie at Nashville.

Atlanta 5, Washington 2 -- Shawn McEachern snapped a third-period tie, and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored his 20th goal as the Trashers scored three times in the final 6:08 to beat the Capitals at Atlanta.

Florida 3, New York Rangers 2 -- Olli Jokinen scored in overtime for the second consecutive game to lift the Panthers past the Rangers at Sunrise, Fla.

Philadelphia 2, New Jersey 1 -- Marcus Ragnarsson scored the go-ahead goal 23 seconds into the third period and Robert Esche made 37 saves for the Flyers at Philadelphia.

Boston 3, Buffalo 2 -- Mike Knuble scored the winning goal with 3.9 seconds left in overtime to help the Bruins rally from a two-goal deficit at Boston and tie an NHL record for overtime games. Boston went into overtime for the seventh time in 11 games and a record 28th time.

Detroit 3, Dallas 0 -- Manny Legace stopped 31 shots for his second shutout at Detroit. The Stars are 0-3-1 against the Red Wings.

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Injured Avalanche forward Steve Moore, who has been in a Vancouver hospital since Monday after being punched from behind by the Canucks’ Todd Bertuzzi, is expected to leave the hospital and return to the Denver area this weekend. Moore suffered a broken neck in the incident.