BUFFALO, N.Y. — Dominik Hasek stopped 30 shots, shutting out Atlanta for the second time in five nights, as the Buffalo Sabres clinched their fourth straight playoff berth with a 4-0 victory Friday over the Thrashers.
Miroslav Satan, with his fourth goal in four games, and Chris Gratton scored seven minutes apart in the first period as the Sabres won their fifth straight home game.
James Patrick and Maxim Afinogenov sealed the victory, scoring a minute apart in the third period.
The Sabres closed within one point of fourth-place Philadelphia and moved three points ahead of sixth-place Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference.
SENATORS 5, BRUINS 4 (OT): Martin Havlat scored 2:26 into overtime, and Patrick Lalime made 44 saves as Ottawa rallied to beat Boston.
The Senators, who trailed three times, regained the Eastern Conference lead from the New Jersey Devils. Boston slipped one point behind Carolina in the race for the conference's final playoff spot.
Alexei Yashin and b each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa, which set a franchise-record with 104 points.
HURRICANES 4, CAPITALS 3 (OT): Rod Brind'Amour scored 3:07 into overtime as Carolina beat Washington.
Carolina (35-31-8-3) has 81 points while Boston (32-29-8-8) has 80. Each team has five games remaining. The Hurricanes also own the tiebreakers between the teams.
Tommy Westlund, Sami Kapanen and Ron Francis also scored for the Hurricanes.
LIGHTNING 4, PANTHERS 2: Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 32 shots in his first NHL game in nearly two years as Tampa Bay snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Florida.
Khabibulin missed nearly two years in a contract dispute, but showed no rust against the Panthers. He stopped 18 shots in the first period — including three when Florida had a two-man advantage — 10 in the second and four in the third.
Pavel Bure, the league's leading scorer with 58 goals, did not score for the second consecutive game. It was the first time since early February that the Russian Rocket went two games without a goal.
MIGHTY DUCKS 2, CANUCKS 2: Ed Jovanovski scored with 3:57 left in regulation to give Vancouver a tie with Anaheim.
Paul Kariya and Jeff Friesen scored power-play goals in the first period for Anaheim, but the Mighty Ducks remained winless in four games (0-2-2).
Henrik Sedin responded for the Canucks, who have just one win in 13 games.
STARS 5, OILERS 4: Brenden Morrow and Joe Nieuwendyk each scored twice as Dallas beat Edmonton and clinched its fifth straight Pacific Division title.
Richard Matvichuk scored the go-ahead goal at 5:12 of the third period for the Stars, 7-0-2 in their last nine.
Doug Weight made it 5-4 with just 3.1 seconds left. Georges Laraque scored twice and had an assist, and Mike Grier also scored for the Oilers.