AJC > Sports Thrashers > Blog > Archives > 2008 > November > 25
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thrashers Get Physical, Rake Leafs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
What the Atlanta Thrashers did to the Leafs in Toronto is exactly what my sons and I need to do with the multitude of those scattered about in my back yard…rake ‘em, bag ‘em and kick ‘em to the curb.
Following up Saturday night’s abysmal 15 shot, zero goal performance against the Columbus Blue Jackets… the Thrashers took their 15th shot at about seven minutes into the second period…leading to Atlanta’s third goal of the night…and beat Toronto 6-3.
By the end of the night’s work, they had doubled Saturday’s shot total.
Atlanta was able to get contribution from all over the place as the first goal of the evening came from third-liner Colby Armstrong…the second came from a wonderful effort from the entire second line…next came the fourth line as Chris Thorburn got off Schneid Island with his first of the year…then first-liner Ilya Kovalchuk tallied the Thrashers fourth of the night just one second after a Toronto penalty had expired…the fifth goal came from the stick of defender Mathieu Schneider, who also finished a +3 for the game…and finally, White scored his second of the night on the power play.
Getting goals from all four lines, the defense and the power play is normally a good recipe for victory.
Kovalchuk was in no mood to take any crap from anyone during the game. Shortly after scoring to put Atlanta up 4-1, he took exception to a hit along the boards from the Leafs Ian White and decided to dish out some of the same to the 5-10, 195-pound winger. As they made their way up ice, Ian apparently mentioned something about a female member of Kovy’s family and promptly was put on his backside by Ilya…double-fisted style.
In the closing minutes of the middle period, after being boarded by White, Kovy again decided to stand his ground and went toe-to-toe with him.
Taking the lead from #17, the rest of the team decided to continue the physical play in the third period. Jimmy Slater caught Mikhail Grabovski with his head down near Atlanta’s blueline and delivered a hefty open ice hit. Later Army did same with Jason Blake who then departed the ice with a few tweety birds circling his noggin. Following that play, Luke Schenn got into it with Armstrong and the pair went to the box for roughing…Schneider then scored on the ensuing 4 on 4.
On the un-good side of the physical play, Erik Christensen took an un-necessary interference penalty with 4:10 remaining in the game. It looked as if he was venting some frustrations after missing an open shot from the side of the net.
Moose stopped 32 of 35 shots to gain the win…the biggest coming at the end of the first when he robbed Grabovski as the Thrashers were killing off a penalty. Moving to his right he stopped the point blank shot to preserve a 1-0 Atlanta lead heading into the first intermission.
Congrats also go out to Nathan Oystrick who earned his first point of the season with an assist on White’s power play goal.
Atlanta now wings it’s way to Washington D.C. for a Wednesday night date with the Southeast Division leading Capitals.
Bogosian Update
According to the guys in the Toronto TV booth…which I was listening to thanks to the greatest gift God gave hockey fans, Center Ice…Don Waddell said that Zach Bogosian will be allowed to do his rehab stint with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves. Apparently Bogey will spend a couple weeks there once coming off I.R.
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