TORONTO, 8 March 2004 — Derek Roy scored twice and Miroslav Satan had a goal and two assists to help the Buffalo Sabres down the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 Saturday, keeping their Stanley Cup playoff hopes alive.

Now trailing the struggling New York Islanders by six points for the Eastern Conference’s final playoff berth with 15 games remaining, the Sabres viewed the weekend as pivotal to their postseason aspirations.

A bankrupt franchise a year ago, the Sabres have returned to respectability this season and are trying to avoid missing the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

Back-to-back wins over Northeast Division frontrunners the Ottawa Senators and Toronto have kept the Sabres in the playoff chase and may have convinced General Manager Darcy Regier to keep his team together with the NHL trade deadline looming tomorrow.

The evening began with a logjam atop the Eastern Conference standings with Toronto, Ottawa, Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning all within four points of each other in a tight battle for the top seed. It was a costly defeat for the Leafs as they lost ground to everyone except the Flyers, who were upset by the Washington Capitals 2-1.

The Lightning took sole possession of first place with 90 points with a 5-3 win over state rivals the Florida Panthers while Ottawa kept pace with a 4-2 victory over the Nashville Predators and the Bruins settled for a 2-2 overtime tie with the Atlanta Thrashers.

Stanley Cup champions New Jersey Devils jumped back into the hunt with a 4-1 win over Carolina. The Sabres, who have dominated the Leafs this season registering three wins and a tie in four meetings, roared into a 3-0 first period lead a pair of goals from Roy and a power-play tally from Daniel Briere.

The teams traded goals in the second period, Darcy Tucker converting a two-man advantage to ruin Martin Biron’s shutout bid, while Brian Campbell restored Sabres’ three-goal cushion. Brain Leetch, acquired from the New York Rangers on Wednesday, impressed the Toronto fans by earning an assist on Tucker’s goal.

Satan, with his 26th of the season, had the only goal of the third period to close out the scoring then said later he expected to be traded despite the Sabres determined playoff charge.

In other games, the Vancouver Canucks shutout the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0, the St. Louis Blues stopped the Islanders 4-2 and the Pittsburgh Penguins shocked the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 2-1.