Thrashers can't hold early lead; lose to Devils

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It was just a matter of time.

New Jersey held a huge shots-on-goal advantage over the Thrashers Saturday. Still, the Devils trailed after the first period.

Not after the second period, however.

New Jersey erased an early two-goal deficit with three second-period goals en route to a 5-4 victory over the Thrashers in front of 14,616 fans at Philips Arena.

The Thrashers scored three first-period goals on just six shots. The Devils scored once in the opening period on 24 shots. The Thrashers could have easily trailed if not for the play of goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, who made several spectacular saves.

In the second period, the Devils took a 4-3 lead on goals by Brian Rolston, Dean McAmmond and Rod Pelley, even though they were outshot 12-9. It was a lead the Devils would not relinquish.

“We were outplayed heavily through the first 30 minutes, I would say,” Thrashers defenseman Ron Hainsey said. “We somehow built a lead, but falsely by the way the game had gone. They kept pressing and it seemed like once they got up one, I don’t know if they sat back or we woke up finally, but we took the play to them for part of the second and part of the third.

“We were outplayed for the majority of the game, frankly, except from the goaltender position.”

In the end, Pavelec stopped 37-of-42 shots.

“I said this morning that if we want to beat these guys we have to be ready all game and play 60 minutes and we didn’t,” Pavelec said.

One thing the Thrashers did accomplish was making New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur wait another day for the NHL shutout record.

Thanks to Hainsey.

The Thrashers defenseman scored the first of the three first-period goals. Brodeur is the NHL’s all-time leader in wins, appearances and minutes played. He also one shutout away from sole possession of the all-time mark.

However, Brodeur lasted just one period and was replaced by Yann Danis.

Hainsey opened the scoring at the 7:15 mark after he came out of the penalty box on a hooking penalty. He beat Devils’ defenseman Colin White to a loose puck in the neutral zone and then put a move on Mike Mottau to get in on Brodeur, beating him with a low shot.

The Thrashers also got first-period goals from Nik Antropov, on a beautiful pass from Ilya Kovalchuk, and Pavel Kubina.

“We made the most of the chances we got,” Hainsey said between periods.

The Devils got a first-period goal from Rob Niedermayer and a third-period goal from McAmmond. The Devils won without goals from their big scorers. Zach Parise has gone 10 games without a goal. McAmmond’s two goals doubled his season total to this point. Pelley scored his first goal of the season.

Slava Kozlov scored a third-period power-play goal to make it a one-goal game.

“The tables got turned right away,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said of the second period. “The first period we gave them too much respect. We talked about fixing our defensive game. ... We gave them too much respect and backed off. They are such a good team, they took advantage of it.”

Danis stopped 19 of the 20 shots he faced after entering the game. It was only his fourth appearance of the season and first since being pulled in his last appearance on Nov. 21 after allowing three goals on nine shots.

Despite the one-goal differential, Thrashers players said the team is not close to being at the same level as the Devils, who have the most wins, points and points percentage in the NHL.

“We weren’t there with them,” Hainsey said. “The shots were 30-7 at the 10-minute mark of the second period. If you believe you are right there with them at that point, you’re fooling yourself. We weren’t right there with them. After they took the lead we got in there with them a little, but even then it wasn’t like we had a ton of threatening chances on them. If was more offensive zone play, which is better than the D [defensive] zone. I don’t think we were with them in this game at all, to be honest.”