AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > October > 19
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Both Home Crowds See Exciting Game At Philips
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
That loud roar you heard Saturday night just before 10:00 pm came from the “partial” sellout crowd of 14,091 at Philips Arena. OK, well…maybe from half of them. The other half of the crowd was obviously made up of first-time hockey goers who accidentally bought the wrong jerseys at the team gear store and just didn’t know which team to root for…tsk, tsk, tsk.
Seriously though…as per usual with games against Buffalo…there were a lot of Sabre jerseys in Philips Arena last night.
The Thrashers, who had jumped out to a 2-0 lead, held off a comeback attempt by the visiting Buffalo Sabres to win 3-2 in the shootout. It was Buffalo’s first defeat of the season after winning their first four.
The Thrashers are now 2-2-1 on the season so far.
The opening period was 20 minutes of the best hockey the Thrashers have played since…since…well, just “since”. They outshot the team wearing the Flying Banana Peels to the tune of 19-6, (not a typo). Said Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff, “They smoked us in the first”.
19 shots to 6…two goals to none. Basically, the Thrashers rolled ‘em, lit ‘em AND smoked ‘em…in the first period. But I guess the way coach Ruff put it was OK too.
Atlanta coach John Anderson seemed to be pleased with first period display. About that opening frame he said, “That was probably our best period to date”.
He went on to commend Buffalo’s ‘keeper by stating, “Without Patrick Lalime standing on his head, it might have been four or five [to nothing]”. I would have to agree. After letting up the Kovalchuk breakaway goal early on…he looked very sharp, only allowing a goal to Bryan Little at the 17:12 mark of the first period.
Little leads the team with 4 goals and 6 points.
Todd White…often referred to as “Charmin” in these parts because of his “soft” play…assisted on both Kovy and Little’s goals. So, at least in this game, he certainly was…on a roll.
Thank youuuuu…..
White is the second leading scorer with a goal and four assists.
Atlanta outshot Buffalo 34-28, (again, not a typo), after regulation and 3-2 in overtime…37-30 overall.
After Lalime stopped Erik Christensen’s opening round shootout attempt, Kovalchuk and Kozlov netted both of their tries for the Thrashers. Kari stuffed Kotalik on Buffalo’s first attempt, was unsuccessful against Drew Stafford, then watched as Thomas Vanek’s shot sailed wide to seal the victory for Atlanta…sending home happy the crowd.
Or at least…half of them.
For the night, Lehts stopped 28 of 30 shots…one goal on a 5-3 Sabre power play. The second came with 3:08 remaining in the third after allowing a rebound that, quite frankly, he should have snared with his glove.
For the season, Kari has a .919 SV% and a 2.78 GAA.
In the un-good segment of today’s blog, the Thrashers were outshot 26-18 after the first and went 0-6 on the power play. That’s…what…21 straight fruitless attempts on the man-advantage now?
Regardless, in the end it was Atlanta securing two more points in the standings after a hard-fought, well played, fast-tempo game. One that was very entertaining to watch by the home crowd.
Both sets of them.
