NHL Roundup

NEW YORK (AP) _ A hard hit and a fluke collision injured two of the NHL's better veterans, Keith Tkachuk and Doug Gilmour. <br><br>St. Louis forward Tkachuk, who scored his 30th goal on a power-play

Friday, March 14th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ A hard hit and a fluke collision injured two of the NHL's better veterans, Keith Tkachuk and Doug Gilmour.

St. Louis forward Tkachuk, who scored his 30th goal on a power-play deflection 6:30 into the first period Thursday night, left a 4-4 tie in Vancouver less than six minutes later with a wrist injury after a big open-ice hit from Brad May.

The 39-year-old Gilmour, acquired to help Toronto in its stretch drive, hurt his knee when he got tangled up with Dave Lowry in the Flames' 4-3 overtime win in Calgary.

Elsewhere, it was Ottawa 3, the New York Rangers 2 in overtime; Boston 4, New Jersey 3; Montreal 4, Atlanta 2; the New York Islanders 5, Edmonton 2; Anaheim 3, San Jose 2; Colorado 5, Columbus 1; and Philadelphia 5, Carolina 3.

St. Louis and Toronto each picked up a point in the standings, but neither coach was happy about the situation.

``It's puffy and swollen, but the X-rays were negative in his wrist,'' Blues coach Joel Quenneville said of his leading goal scorer. ``We're encouraged there's no fracture, but obviously there's some issue with wrist injuries, so we'll have to see. It's too premature to give you any indication as to the extent.

``It was a late hit, it was a high hit and he didn't have the puck, so it was a dangerous hit.''

Toronto's Pat Quinn was just as upset, although he didn't accuse Lowry of any malice.

``Now is the time of the year you don't like playing teams that, in theory, have nothing to lose,'' Quinn said, ``because sometimes they play dangerous and you don't want your guys hurt at this time of year.''

Blues 4, Canucks 4

Pavol Demitra scored his 30th goal and added an assist for the Blues. Cory Stillman and Eric Boguniecki also scored for St. Louis, but goalie Brent Johnson struggled.

Brendan Morrison had a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who have earned at least one point in 17 of 19 games since the All-Star break. Mats Lindgren, Daniel Sedin and Marek Malik also scored.

Flames 4, Maple Leafs 3, OT

Chris Clark scored 4:30 into overtime. Clark took a drop pass from Chris Drury and fired a slap shot over Trevor Kidd's glove.

Toronto also was missing right wing Alexander Mogilny, who got permission to leave the team to attend to a personal matter. Calgary was without newly acquired Dean McAmmond, who was held out because of a technicality surrounding the trade Tuesday with Colorado.

Senators 3, Rangers 2, OT

At Ottawa, Wade Redden scored 1:34 into overtime to lift the league-leading Senators.

Newly acquired forward Bryan Smolinski and Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson combined on a passing play in the Rangers' zone to set up Redden's shot from the slot.

Alfredsson also scored and Marian Hossa became the second Senators player to score 40 goals in a season as Ottawa opened a three-point lead over Dallas in the NHL's overall standings.

Pavel Bure scored his second penalty shot goal of the season for New York, and Petr Nedved got his 24th goal to send the game to overtime.

Bruins 4, Devils 3

At Boston, Martin Lapointe scored three goals in 5:15 to drive star goalie Martin Brodeur from the game.

Lapointe, with just two goals in his other 47 games, got the second hat trick of his 10-year career as part of Boston's four-goal flurry in the second period.

The Bruins improved to 4-1-0-1 after going winless in nine games. The Devils dropped to 1-3-0-1 after going unbeaten in five and saw Philadelphia move within two points of them atop the Atlantic Division.

Canadiens 4, Thrashers 2

At Atlanta, Richard Zednik had a goal and an assist and Marcel Hossa added a pair of assists for Montreal, which won its third straight to complete a six-game road trip.

Mike Ribeiro and Andreas Dackell also scored for the Canadiens, and Andrei Markov added an empty-net goal with 24 seconds left. Jose Theodore had 26 saves one game after shutting out Florida.

Islanders 5, Oilers 2

At Edmonton, Alberta, Jason Blake had two goals and an assist as the Islanders scored five straight goals.

In ending their four-game losing streak, the Islanders stayed three points up on Montreal for eighth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Oilers opened an early 2-0 lead, but Blake keyed New York's rally by scoring the tying goal in the second period, assisting on Mark Parrish's third-period goal and adding an empty-netter.

Edmonton remained six points ahead of Nashville for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.

Avalanche 5, Blue Jackets 1

At Columbus, Ohio, Joe Sakic scored his 12th career hat trick, all three goals coming in the first period. Sakic has one four-goal game and 11 three-goal performances in his 15 years in the NHL.

Patrick Roy had 20 saves as the Avalanche moved to 11-0-1-0 in the series with Columbus. Steve Reinprecht assisted on all of Sakic's goals. Greg de Vries and Milan Hejduk each had a goal and an assist.

Flyers 5, Hurricanes 3

At Philadelphia, Tony Amonte had a goal and an assist in his Philadelphia debut and Keith Primeau scored the go-ahead goal 59 seconds into the third period.

The Flyers snapped the Hurricanes' season-high four game winning streak.

John LeClair, appearing in his first game since dislocating his right shoulder at Pittsburgh on Nov. 27, and Eric Desjardins also scored for the Flyers, who snapped a three-game losing streak.

Mighty Ducks 3, Sharks 2, OT

Anaheim, Calif., Vitaly Vishnevski got the tying goal early in the third period and set up Steve Thomas' second winner in two games since joining Anaheim.

Thomas' 12th career overtime goal tied the NHL record shared by Sergei Fedorov and Jaromir Jagr.

Vishnevski's short wrist shot that beat Mikka Kiprusoff was Vishnevski's second goal in four games after going scoreless in his previous 204.

Defenseman Rob Davison got his first NHL goal for San Jose.