Finally, the puck bounces Thrashers' way

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Thrashers have been waiting almost three weeks for the puck to bounce their way.

It finally did on Sunday.

Ron Hainsey knuckled in the game-tying goal, and the Thrashers went on to a 3-2 shootout win over St. Louis.

The victory snapped a four-game home losing streak that dated back to Oct. 22 against Washington. In that game, the Capitals scored on a 178-foot shot that took three bounces before ending up in the back of the Thrashers' net.

“Remember I said that three weeks ago when Washington scored that goal,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “You hope it evens out. Thank goodness it was tonight.”

As has been their recent history, the Thrashers fell behind early. They trailed 2-0  in the final period.

Unlike those last four home losses, all by one goal, the Thrashers came all the way back.

Defenseman Toby Enstrom scored at the 12:59 mark of the third period. He was on the receiving end of two crisp passes from Colby Armstrong and Marty Reasoner. Less than four minutes later, the Thrashers tied the game on a broken play. Reasoner won a faceoff in the Thrashers’ offensive zone back to Hainsey. The defenseman threw the puck on net, which took a bounce and beat St. Louis goaltender Ty Conklin, to tie the score at 2-2 at the 16:29 mark.

Reasoner said the play was designed to go to Hainsey off the faceoff win and then he was to pass the puck to Evander Kane for a shot on goal. However, the Blues read the play.

“I was trying to get something going,” Hainsey said. “Everyone was standing still once that play didn’t work to Kane. I just threw it there and hoped for the best.”

It gave the Thrashers new life.

“All we needed was a good bounce, which we got there,” Thrashers goaltender Johan Hedberg said.

The Thrashers’ last seven goals have been scored by defensemen.

The Thrashers won in the shootout when Rich Peverley and Slava Kozlov each scored, and Hedberg stopped Andy McDonald and Brad Boyes. Hedberg got his second win of the season, finishing with 30 saves.

Peverley beat Conklin to the top right corner, and Kozlov went wide to the right before snapping a shot to the upper left corner.

“He’s magic,” Anderson said about Kozlov’s career performance in shootouts. “... I feel confident with [Hedberg] and [Kozlov] there because they have shootout competitions every day before practice and after practice. So it really helps [Hedberg] and it really helps [Kozlov]. That’s why [Kozlov] goes second, because he very rarely misses.”

The win also snaps a two-game losing streak. The Thrashers lost to the New York Islanders 6-3 Saturday. The poor defensive showing prompted Anderson to change his defensive pairings.

Zach Bogosian and Hainsey were paired, and Pavel Kubina teamed with Enstrom.

“I just thought [Enstrom] and [Bogosian] are really dynamic together, but they were trying to do too much offensively, so we kind of paired them up with a couple of older guys,” Anderson said. “[We tried] to get them comfortable and get them talking.”

The move was not a big deal to Hainsey, who called the team’s defensive performance against the Islanders the previous night “horrendous.”

“I think we feel the four of us are interchangeable,” Hainsey said. “I don’t think it’s a big thing. Throughout 82 games, you are going to play with a couple different guys. I’ve never played with one guy for an entire season yet, and this is my ninth year. Sometimes you just change it up and see if something else works. We got a win tonight, so it will probably be that way Thursday [against the New York Rangers] and we’ll see what happens.”