The Atlanta Thrashers will aim for their longest winning
streak of the season when they welcome the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets
for an interconference battle tonight at Philips Arena.
Atlanta has won two in a row for the third time this season, with recent road
wins over Montreal and Ottawa. The back-to-back victories come on the heels of
a four-game losing streak.
The Thrashers notched a 3-1 win in Ottawa on Saturday and claimed a wild
victory Tuesday evening in Montreal. Colby Armstrong's goal late in the third
period and 34 saves from Ondrej Pavelec staked Atlanta to the 5-4 victory at
Bell Centre.
Rich Peverley recorded a goal and two assists for the Thrashers and pushed his
point streak to eight games. Peverley leads Atlanta with 16 points on the year
and has five goals and seven assists during his current run.
"It's a crazy game, a lot of chances both ways," said Peverley of the frenetic
nature of the contest. That's good for the fans, but I don't think either
coach sees it that way. I think every time they scored, we seemed to come back
right away and have a good shift. There was a lot of character there."
Bryan Little added a goal and one helper while Pavel Kubina notched his first
goal of the season for Atlanta. Nik Antropov added two assists to extend his
point streak to five games.
Pavelec has started the last six games for Atlanta and will continue to serves
as the team's top goaltending option while regular starter Kari Lehtonen
continues to have back problems. Lehtonen has had two back surgeries in the
last three months and won't be ready to return for another six-to-eight weeks
at the earliest. Pavelec is expected to start again tonight.
Atlanta could have defenseman Ron Hainsey back tonight after he missed the
last team's two contests with a lower-body injury. Hainsey, who is
questionable to return, has one goal and two assists in nine games this
season.
The Thrashers are 1-3-0 as the host this year and have dropped three straight
at Philips Arena since beating Tampa Bay to open the season on October 3.
The Blue Jackets. meanwhile, have lost four of five and six of their last
eight games and are coming off Wednesday's close setback against visiting San
Jose. Dan Boyle had an assist and scored the game-winner in the shootout as
the Sharks won their sixth consecutive game with a 3-2 victory over the Blue
Jackets.
After the first three shooters missed to begin the shootout, Boyle fired a
wrister that found the upper right-hand corner of the net. Evgeni Nabokov then
made a pad save on Rick Nash to secure the win for San Jose.
Nash and Jason Chimera scored for the Blue Jackets. Anton Stralman had a pair
of assists for Columbus, which got 36 saves from Steve Mason in defeat.
Nash's tally came on the man advantage, giving Columbus a power-play goal in
five straight games for the first time since October 17-27, 2007.
The Blue Jackets activated defenseman Jan Hejda off injured reserve prior to
Wednesday's game. Hejda had been sidelined since October 13 with a sprained
left knee and had nearly 24 minutes of ice time on Wednesday.
Columbus defenseman Mike Commodore (charley horse) and forwards Kristian
Huselius (undisclosed) and Derick Brassard (hand) are questionable for
tonight's game.
Columbus, which is 4-4-0 as the visiting club this year, will begin a four-
game homestand when it hosts Carolina on Saturday.
The Jackets have won two straight and three of their last four encounters with
the Thrashers. Columbus ended a three-game road losing streak in the series
when it last visited Atlanta on November 22 of last season.
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