Six Pittsburgh players scored and Mathieu Garon blocked 28 shots Thursday in a 6-1 Penguins rout of the New York Islanders. Pittsburgh, which is headed for the playoffs, got goals from Philippe Boucher, Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke, Bill Guerin, Sidney Crosby and Tyler Kennedy. Frans Nielsen scored for

David Booth's power-play goal with 12 seconds left in the second period turned out to be the game-winner for Florida Sunday in a 4-2 triumph over Pittsburgh. Booth was assisted by Jay Bouwmeester and Cory Stillman on a goal that sent the Panthers ahead 3-1. Ville Peltonen tacked on another goal in the

Andrei Kostitsyn's first NHL hat trick accounted for all of Montreal's scoring Saturday night when the Canadiens beat Pittsburgh 3-2. Carey Price stopped 34 shots -- 17 in the third period -- and the Canadiens opened a four-game road trip with a win, their third in four games overall. Tomas Plekanec assisted on two of Kostitsyn's goals. Sidney Crosby and Pascal Dupuis scored goals and Marc-Andre Fleury allowed three goals on 19 shots for the Penguins, who have lost five of their last nine games and are just 5-7-1 in December. Kostitsyn opened the scoring at 1:15 of the first period and Dupuis tied it at 1-1 with 5:16 left in the first.

Petr Sykora and Pascal Dupuis both recorded hat tricks Thursday, the first of their NHL careers, leading Pittsburgh to a 9-2 blasting of the New York Islanders. The Penguins halted a three-game losing streak in overwhelming fashion, scoring two more goals than they had managed in any previous game this season. Sykora added an assist and Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists.

Well, that didn't take long. Less than three years after he was drafted with the label of franchise saviour, Sid The Kid has carried his Pittsburgh Penguins into the Stanley Cup final.