With a simple flick of the wrist, Ilya Kovalchuk gave his team the second of two hard-earned points in a mettle-testing win over a scrappy Canadiens squad on Saturday night at Philips Arena. In their first game back (Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press) at the Bulb after a dismal 7-day road trip, which saw the Thrashers lose in 3 different time zones in less than 4 days, the Thrashers used some much needed home-cooking to rediscover their scoring touch in a pivotal intra-conference match-up against the Habs. The dramatic overtime win earned Atlanta two crucial points in the tightly-bunched Eastern Conference standings.
With only 3 seconds left in a power-play that carried over into the overtime stanza, Kovalchuk beat Habs' netminder, Carey Price, with one of his patented wristers over the shoulder of the hot-dogging Price, whose outstretched glove-hand was not nearly quick enough this time. In a back and forth affair offering a little bit of everything for the raucous crowd of 15,000-plus, the Thrashers battled back from yet another early two-goal deficit by amping up the pressure and peppering the Montreal goaltender with a season-high 17 second period shots. The perseverance paid off to the tune of 3 goals in the middle stanza as the T-birds managed to overcome not only the initial 2-goal deficit, but also an immediate response and goal by the visitors from la belle Province once the game was knotted at two. (Author's Correction: the team's season high for 2nd period shots on goal was actually 18 in the November 5th, Thursday nite tilt against the CBJ's; you can certainly guess the result considering the day of the week it was played!)
After Andrei Kostitsyn gave the Canadiens a 3 to 2 lead with 4 minutes and 47 seconds remaining in the 2nd period, Johan "Moose" Hedberg turned aside every single shot he faced thereafter, including a sprawling third-period save on his belly to stone a surging Sergei "Brothers" Kostitsyn on a short-handed breakaway attempt during the last of six fruitless power(less)-plays. Alas, the 7th man-advantage of the evening, which saw former Thrasher Glen Metropolit, sitting in the sin bin for an ill-timed high-sticking infraction, proved to be the elixir that would cure Atlanta's recent power-play woes.
On this night, fortune smiled on the blue-clad Thrashers as the timing of the penalty was such that the PP carried over into overtime giving them a fortuitous 4 men to 3 advantage. After a couple of good scoring bids early in the bonus stanza, the ageless Slava Kozlov took a mid-ice feed from Toby Enstrom over the blueline where he slammed on the breaks, waited for a streaking Rich Peverley to divert the scrambling defense's attention, then hit Kovy in full stride at the top of the right circle for the game-winning wrister. The laser-like shot left little doubt denting the far-side twine to the delight of the Blueland faithful, who gleefully chanted the captain's name during the 3-star ceremony and obligatory interview.
Lastly, before I close up this here laptop to get some welcomed slumber, I would like to give a few shout-outs to my esteemed blogging buddies, Razor Catch Prey, Big Shooter, Mortimer Peacock, Bill "Rawhide" Tiller and the lovely and talented K-belle (Ms. Ten if you're nasty) for providing such a fun and festivial back-drop to the game unfolding before our eyes. And finally, a tip of the hat to ajc.com blog poster "rightshot" who graciously took the time to pay us all a visit in our section of mischief between periods. 'Twas a pleasure to meet you rightshot and thank you kindly for stopping by my blog from time to time. Don't be a stranger!
1 comment:
Hey buddy!
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