Islanders Get Buried by the Avalanche, 6-2

Taking a lead against the Colorado Avalanche was no problem for the New York Islanders. Holding it was something else.

The Islanders had a 2-1 lead midway through the second period, but the defending Stanley Cup champions scored the next five goals for a 6-2 victory Monday night at Uniondale, N.Y.

Colorado, which is now unbeaten in 10 games (8-0-2), scored the only goal of the first period when Eric Lacroix put a backhand wraparound past Islander goalie Eric Fichaud.

New York picked up the pace in the second period, and took a 2-1 lead on goals by Zigmund Palffy, his team-leading 10th, and Derek King.

Then Joe Sakic, the NHL’s scoring leader, took over.

Adam Deadmarsh gave Sakic a pass in the high slot. Moving from left to right, waited for Fichaud to go down, and then put a backhander up high at 11:03.

Aaron Miller beat Fichaud 63 seconds later with a wrist shot off a three-on-two break.

Sakic clinched it at 4:17 of the final period with a power-play wrist shot, his ninth goal of the season. Rene Corbet and Peter Forsberg also scored in the period.

Buffalo 3, Florida 2--Donald Audette scored two goals, including the game-winner with 58.7 seconds remaining in overtime at Buffalo.

The winning goal came after Florida goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick fell on his stomach saving a Brian Holzinger shot. Audette skated in and slid it past Fitzpatrick while he was down.

Montreal 3, Edmonton 2--Saku Koivu’s power-play goal 3:37 into overtime gave the Canadiens the victory at Montreal.

Koivu jammed the rebound of Vladimir Malakhov’s shot in while defenseman Bryan Marchment was serving a hooking penalty.

Jason Arnott and Martin Rucinsky swapped third-period goals in a game dominated by goaltenders for 60 minutes.

Vancouver 3, New York Rangers 2--Markus Naslund’s tie-breaking goal in the third period gave the Canucks the victory at New York.

Naslund scored at 4:56 of the final period when he beat Ranger goaltender Mike Richter with a backhand shot while falling to the ice.

New York’s Wayne Gretzky had tied the score, 2-2, at 16:59 of the second period with his eighth goal. Gretzky has scored in 17 of the Rangers’ 19 games.