Thrashers rally to beat Hurricanes

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Raleigh, N.C. -- Rich Peverley scored the fourth of Atlanta's five third-period goals with 6:03 remaining to help the Thrashers rally for a 6-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.

Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and an assist, Evander Kane, Slava Kozlov, Marty Reasoner and Maxim Afinogenov also scored, and Tobias Enstrom had three assists for the Thrashers, 6-1-3 in their last 10 games. Ondrej Pavelec made 32 saves.

Erik Cole had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Samsonov, Matt Cullen and Stephane Yelle also scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina had won three in a row at home before blowing a 4-1 third-period lead against the Thrashers.

Manny Legace made 28 saves against the team that cut him during training camp.

On a seemingly harmless rush, Bryan Little passed the puck back to Peverley, who found open space and snapped it over Legace's shoulder for the winner.

Atlanta had scored three goals in 2:39 span to tie it at 4.

Kozlov first took advantage of some lax Carolina defense and a nice pass from Little to make it 4-2. Enstrom then set up Kovalchuk with a deft pass from the slot, allowing Kovalchuk to wrist the puck past Legace from a sharp angle. Kovalchuk has 14 points in his last eight games.

Kovalchuk had an instrumental role in Afinogenov's goal that tied the score. After he crossed the blue line, Kovalchuk held the puck to draw the Carolina defense. He then passed it to Afinogenov, who charged the net and beat Legace between the legs on the backhand. Reasoner capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 1:03 remaining.

Carolina had a promising start.

Eric Staal won a faceoff in the Atlanta zone to Gleason, who shot the puck at Pavelec. The rebound came out to Cole, who backhanded it through Pavelec's legs 8:11 into the game. The Hurricanes made it 2-0 in the second period when Yelle stole the puck from Pavelec behind the net. Yelle then beat Pavelec to the far post and jammed the puck into the open net.

Kane brought the Thrashers within one midway through the second period when he deflected Tobias Enstrom's pass through Legace's legs.

The Hurricanes quickly built the lead back to two on goals by Samsonov and Cullen.

Adding to Carolina's misery was the fact that defenseman Joni Pitkanen sustained an upper-body injury and didn't play in the third period.