It's the losses to the lower-echelon teams that the Senators will regret most if they wind up missing the playoffs.

And it's their failures against the New York Islanders that will come back to haunt them if they wind up cleaning out their lockers after their April 11 visit to Toronto for their last game of the regular season.

Coach Craig Hartsburg was critical of his team's effort following the latest setback at the hands of the Isles, a 4-2 flop Saturday.

"I don't think we played very good at all," he said. "I don't think we competed hard enough for 60 minutes to beat that team. We didn't play well at all."

The New York Islanders unveiled an unlikely offensive force against the Ottawa Senators: defenseman Freddy Meyer. Meyer scored twice and added an assist, and the Islanders snapped a two-game losing streak with a 4-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night. "I know in the minors, I had two hat tricks," Meyer said.

The Ottawa Senators kept it simple in a shootout against Vesa Toskala and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Rather than trying to deke the goalie, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson beat Toskala with shots to give Ottawa a 2-1 victory on Thursday night in a game overshadowed by the Maple Leafs reaching a deal with former Anaheim GM Brian Burke.

Senators coach Craig Hartsburg stayed positive after a string of difficult losses, imploring his team to stay confident. The strategy finally paid off Saturday. Daniel Alfredsson and Jesse Winchester scored late in the second period and Ottawa beat the New York Rangers 4-1 to end a six-game skid. Jason Spezza and Nick Foligno also scored for the Senators, who got their first win since a 4-1 victory...

Alex Tanguay looked as if he was going to back right into Alex Auld before he put a backhander through the Ottawa goalie's legs for the shootout winner. Tanguay scored on Montreal's fourth shootout attempt to give the Canadiens a 3-2 victory over the Senators on Thursday night. Tanguay turned to the right as he bore in on Auld and skated backward before scoring the winner after Andrei Markov had...