The Colorado Avalanche established themselves as the NHL's best team in the regular season, and now they're ready to concentrate on the playoffs.

Joe Sakic scored three goals, including the game-winner, late in the second period, and the Avalanche clinched the Presidents' Trophy with a 5-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday night. Colorado also assured itself of home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

"At the start of the year, we talked about being the best team after 82 games," Colorado coach Bob Hartley said. "And we managed to do it with three games remaining. This will allow us to rest certain guys the next few days."

The New York Islanders, meanwhile, avoided clinching the league's worst record.

Bill Muckalt and Dave Scatchard scored against former Vancouver teammate Garth Snow as the Islanders (21-48-7-3) beat the Mario Lemieux-less Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1. A loss or tie in New York's final three games will secure the NHL's worst record.

"This is a real proving ground to see where we stand," Scatchard said after beating the Penguins for the third time in five games.

The Avalanche, who lead Detroit by eight points (115-107) with three games remaining for each team, also won the Presidents' Trophy in 1996-97.

But Sakic said for Colorado, which scored just two goals while going 1-2 in its previous three games, winning the trophy means little other than having home ice.

"Other than that, we have a long way to go," Sakic said. "We've been terrible the last couple of weeks. We played better tonight. We have to get our confidence back."

Sakic, the NHL's second-leading scorer, pushed his goals total to 49 and points total to 112. It was his second hat trick of the season and 11th of his career.

"For us to go far in the playoffs, we need Joe to play the way he did tonight," said goalie Patrick Roy, who had 22 saves to post his career-high 39th victory of the season. He played only two full games in the previous two weeks because of tendinitis in his right knee.

ISLANDERS 4, PENGUINS 1: Claude Lapointe and Oleg Kvasha also scored for the Islanders, who had been 0-7 at home since beating Florida on March 11. Jaromir Jagr, the NHL's leading scorer, scored his 49th goal for Pittsburgh.

Snow had been sidelined since Feb. 7 and missed 25 games because of a strained groin. He appeared rusty at times, but made 25 saves. Islanders goalie Chris Terreri made 35 saves.

"It felt good to get in there, but you can't take away from their goalie," Snow said. He played a great game.

Lemieux decided Sunday to sit out his second game since ending a 3 1/2-year retirement Dec. 27 to rest for the upcoming playoffs.

Pittsburgh, the Eastern Conference's sixth-place team, clinched its 11th straight playoff appearance Saturday. The Penguins are four points behind Philadelphia and five behind fourth-place Buffalo with three games remaining.

"We don't worry about seeding. Right now, we're playing playoff hockey," Pittsburgh defenseman Darius Kasparaitis said. "We just didn't show up."

DEVILS 4, BLACKHAWKS 3: Randy McKay scored with 3:42 remaining to cap a three-goal third-period rally that gave New Jersey a victory over Chicago and the Atlantic Division title.

Patrik Elias and Alexander Mogilny scored power-play goals earlier in the period for the Devils, who moved into a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with Ottawa with three games left in the regular reason.

Petr Sykora also scored, and John Vanbiesbrouck stopped 22 shots in winning his fourth straight since being acquired last month from the New York Islanders.

Steve Dubinsky, Steve Sullivan and Tony Amonte scored in a 3:01 first-period span for the visiting Blackhawks, who are winless in eight games (0-7-1).

BRUINS 3, CANADIENS 2 (OT): Andrei Kovalenko's overtime goal gave Boston a victory over Montreal, and the Bruins regained the lead in the race for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

The Canadiens tied it with 1:41 left in the third when Oleg Petrov scored his 17th goal of the season during a goalmouth scramble.

SABRES 5, PANTHERS 3: Jason Woolley, who had three goals in his previous 65 games, had two goals and an assist to lead Buffalo to a victory over the Panthers.

Chris Gratton, Erik Rasmussen and Curtis Brown also scored for visiting Buffalo, which won for the fifth time in six games.

Robert Svehla, Joey Tetarenko and Denis Shvidki scored for Florida.

KINGS 3, CANUCKS 1: Ziggy Palffy had a goal and an assist, and Luc Robitaille scored on a power play as Los Angeles beat Vancouver.

The Kings, one of five teams competing for the final four playoff spots in the Western Conference, moved a point ahead of idle Phoenix into a seventh-place tie with the visiting Canucks.

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Felix Potvin made 31 saves in his first start against the Canucks since they traded him to the Kings on Feb. 15.

SHARKS 4, WILD 2: Teemu Selanne scored twice, including the go-ahead goal early in the third period, as San Jose rallied to beat visiting Minnesota.

After two sluggish periods, the Sharks scored twice in 17 seconds. Mike Ricci banged home his own rebound to tie it with 14:08 to play, and Selanne scored his second goal of the night on a goal-mouth scramble moments later. Selanne also scored a power-play goal in the second.

Wes Walz and Pascal Dupuis, playing his first NHL game, scored for Minnesota.

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