Thrashers let one get away, lose in overtime

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DENVER – The Thrashers had it … and just like that they lost it.

The Thrashers blew a two-goal third-period lead and dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to Colorado Wednesday at the Pepsi Center.

Kyle Cumiskey scored nine seconds into the extra period to put the finishing touches on the dramatic comeback. The Avalanche won the faceoff and Cumiskey split Thrashers defensemen Zach Bogosian and Tobias Enstrom and fired the game-winner past goaltender Johan Hedberg.

“What did I see?” Thrashers coach John Anderson said, repeating a question on the final play. “I saw two defenseman not taking anybody. We let him just walk right in. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.”

The Thrashers (25-24-9, 59 points) earned a point in the first of a three-game road trip. They are tied for 10th place in the Eastern Conference, four points out of the eighth spot.

“It’s a disappointing point because we had a two-goal lead,” defenseman Ron Hainsey said. “Realistically to get a point on the road to start the trip is not terrible, but it’s a disappointing point.”

The Thrashers took a 3-1 on Nik Antropov’s goal 4:19 into the final period. However, the Avalanche came roaring back to tie the game on goals from Chris Stewart and Chris Dumo to force overtime.

And then it was over quickly.

“It’s disappointing to say the least,” Anderson said. “We stopped playing the last 10 minutes of the game. We let them skate all over and do whatever they want. … We talk about results. We’ve got to win hockey games, especially when we are up 3-1 in the third period. We can’t give points away like that.”

The Thrashers new top line combination of Antropov, Niklas Bergfors and Bryan Little accounted for all the goals, each scoring early in a period.

Antropov, who had a goal taken away earlier in the game by video replayed, scored in the third period on assists from each linemate. Little sent the final pass to Antropov, who snapped a shot past Avalanche goaltender Craig Anderson. It was Antropov’s 14th goal of the season.

“Momentum is a tough thing to change in sports,” Anderson said. “When they had it, it was very difficult to switch it around. But they never should have got it.”

Little put the Thrashers up 2-1 with a goal 5:32 into the second period. He took a drop pass from Marty Reasoner and snapped a shot that beat Anderson to the glove side. The goal was Little’s 10th of the season and fourth in the past five games.

The Thrashers missed taking a two-goal lead by less than an inch late in the second period. Antropov skated in on Anderson, beating Avalanche defenseman Ryan Wilson, and appeared to jam the puck into the goal. It was ruled a goal but disallowed when a video replay revealed the entire puck had not crossed the goal line.

Bergfors opened the scoring 8:54 into the game. The Thrashers won a faceoff in the Colorado zone and Bergfors took control and skated down the center of the ice. He waited to shoot as he moved to the right side of the ice and put a shot on net that beat Anderson. It was Bergfors’ 15th goal of the season and second as a Thrasher. Antropov was credited with the assist, his seventh in the past six games.

The lead was short lived as the Avalanche tied the game 46 seconds later on a Brett Clark goal.

TheThrashers top line finished with six points (three goals, three assists) and were a combined plus-two.

“It’s kind of hard to focus on the positives when the game turned out like that,” Little said. “It overshadows what we did offensively.”

The Thrashers dropped their fifth game of the season in the overtime period.

Hedberg stopped 31 shots. The Avalanche outshot the Thrashers 16-9 in the final period.

“They picked up the pace right after we scored,” Hainsey said. “They started pinching their defense a lot more. They picked up the pace and we really didn’t have an answer for it. I don’t know if we tired at the end, but they picked up the pace to the point where we couldn’t answer. We turned a lot of pucks over.

“In overtime, we didn’t do a good enough job defending the rush.”