Thrashers lose Kovalchuk, second straight home game

By Chris Vivlamore

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Thrashers lost more than a game Saturday. They lost Ilya Kovalchuk.

Enlarge photo

Hyosub Shin, hshin@ajc.com Thrashers forward Rich Peverley maintains possession of the puck as Sharks' forward Ryan Vesce (53) moves in. Peverley had a power play goal in the second period.

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Kovalchuk took a shot off his foot in the first period and did not return in a 4-3 loss to San Jose. The exact nature and extent of the injury was not immediately known. Thrashers coach John Anderson said Kovalchuk would visit a doctor Monday to determine the next course of action.

“He’ll have a scan and an X-ray, and we’ll figure out what it is,” Anderson said. “He was walking, but tentatively, otherwise he would have come back and played.”

The Thrashers' captain, who entered the game tied for the NHL lead with nine goals, played only 3 minutes, 54 seconds in four shifts.

It was another slow start that led to the second consecutive home loss for the Thrashers (4-3-1). San Jose scored 45 seconds into the game when Joe Thornton slapped a rebound past Thrashers goaltender Johan Hedberg. The Thrashers also allowed a goal two minutes into Thursday’s loss to Washington.

“We haven’t had great starts to the first period, and that concerns me,” Anderson said. “We’ve talked about it the last two days. We make a couple early blunders. We probably made three or four mistakes, and they ended up in our net.”

Hedberg, making his second start of the season, did not make it out of the second period. He was pulled with 10:41 left in the period after a Patrick Marleau shot deflected off the leg of Marty Reasoner and past Hedberg to give the Sharks a 4-1 lead.

Hedberg was replaced by Ondrej Pavelec, who was pulled in the second period of the loss to Washington. Hedberg allowed four goals on 12 shots.

“We are showing a pattern here that we shouldn’t be too happy with,” Hedberg said. “The starts have been hurting to us the last two games, and we’ve got to fix that . ... I think it’s more of us not being on our toes.”

San Jose also got a first-period goal from former Thrasher Dany Heatley and another second-period goal from Marleau. Heatley, who was booed all night, scored a power-play goal after Thrashers defenseman Anssi Salmela was called for hooking.

Pavelec stopped all 12 shots he faced, and the Thrashers rallied to pull within a goal.

“It’s disappointing that we keep coming back,” Pavelec said. “You know you can beat those guys, and it’s hard because if you play all 60 minutes like that, there is no way to lose the game. ... We just have to play all 60 minutes.”

The Thrashers got goals from Todd White, Rich Peverley and Evander Kane.

White took control of the puck at center ice, skating into the Sharks’ zone and ripping a shot past San Jose goalie Evgeni Nabokov in the second period. The newly re-signed Peverley scored his fifth goal of the season on a second-period power play. He slapped a cross-ice pass from Nik Antropov past Nabokov.

Kane scored his third goal of the season 40 seconds into the third period, but the Thrashers could not get the equalizer despite a furious finish.

Anderson rotated first Reasoner and eventually Kane into Kovalchuk’s wing spot on the top line.

It ended up being another bad bounce that cost the Thrashers. Marleau’s second-period goal that deflected off Reasoner was the game-winner.

“I wouldn’t [attribute] a bad bounce to losing the game,” Peverley said. “We put ourselves in that position, down that many goals, before they scored on that lucky bounce. We need to have better starts. … We’ve lost two in a row now. We can’t lose three in a row. Even though it’s nine games in, for the playoffs, you need points now.”

The Thrashers are off Sunday and have three days of practice before getting a chance to stop the downward pattern. They host Washington again Thursday.

“It’s part of hockey, and hopefully the hockey gods will smile on us one night,” Anderson said of the unlucky bounces. “But we can’t get behind the 8-ball like this.”