Victory puts Blues in playoff picture

After digging themselves quite a hole, the St. Louis Blues find themselves back in the thick of the playoff race.

Petr Cajanek had a goal and two assists and Reinhard Divis made 18 saves, leading the Blues to a 5-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night.

The Blues, who have won two straight following a seven-game winless streak, moved into an eighth-place tie with Los Angeles in the Western Conference. Both teams have 73 points, but the Blues have more victories. The Kings, however, have a game in hand.

"There's nothing righted yet, but this is how we need to play," said Blues center Doug Weight, who had two assists. "We still have a lot of work to do, but if we play like this we'll be successful."

Dallas Drake, Chris Pronger, Pavol Demitra and Mike Sillinger also scored for the Blues, who have not lost to Buffalo since Oct. 1, 1997, a stretch of 10 games (8-0-2). St. Louis has also not lost in Buffalo in the last seven trips (5-0-2).

Derek Roy scored his third goal in two games for Buffalo, which failed to gain ground on the New York Islanders for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East. The Islanders remain six points in front of the Sabres, with both teams having 14 games remaining.

The Blues, who have just six wins in their last 23 games, are three points behind both Nashville and Calgary for sixth place in the West.

"We still play a lot of teams that are in front of us, so we still need to work harder and get as many points as we can," Pronger said. "All we can do is do the things necessary for us to win games. We want to leave it up to us to make the playoffs."

After Drake and Roy traded goals in the first period, Pronger gave the Blues a 2-1 lead in the second with a slap shot from the top of the left circle. It was Pronger's 14th goal of the year, tying a career high set in the 1999-2000 season.

The Sabres managing just two shots on Divis in the second period.

St. Louis broke the game open with three third-period goals.

Demitra scored his 20th early in the third. Cajanek got his eighth goal with 8:02 remaining, and Sillinger connected with just over a minute to go.