DEL.ICIO.USThrashers nipped by Rangers on late goal
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, October 30, 2008
New York — Two nights after looking like the worst team in the NHL, the Thrashers went back to looking like their old selves: A team that can play anybody close … and lose.
Filling the role of “anybody” Thursday night were the New York Rangers, the 10-2-1 team with the league’s best record and the best 13-game start in franchise history. Fitting the definition of “close”: The game was tied with seven minutes left.
Mary Altaffer/AP
Atlanta goalie Kari Lehtonen (right) bounced back for a dismal game against Philadelphia, thwarting Rangers’ forward Chris Drury on this second-period opportunity.
Consolation for the Thrashers? Not much. Frustration? A bunch.
Players said the 3-2 loss didn’t feel a whole lot better than Tuesday’s 7-0 embarrassment at home against the Flyers.
“It’s always tough when you lose, I think tougher when you’re so close,” said Kari Lehtonen, who was sprawled defenseless on the ice when Daniel Girardi’s game-winner went over him into the net with 6:27 to play.
Close isn’t comforting when your winless streak reaches five games and your record reaches 2-6-2 and you’re last in your division and second-to-last in your conference. Less than one month into the season, the Thrashers are starting to feel like a team running out of time.
“We’ve got to start finding ways to win,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We don’t want to get so far behind the eight ball we can’t climb out of the deep hole we’re digging right now.”
Eric Boulton tried to stop digging and start fighting. He exchanged blows to the face with Colton Orr less than three minutes into Thursday night’s game, and his teammates on the bench banged their sticks against the boards in a show of unity and support. Two nights after looking lifeless, the Thrashers showed they had a pulse.
“I know my job,” Boulton said. “I’m trying to get the guys going, give the boys a little jump, some momentum.”
It seemed to work.
Slava Kozlov scored the game’s first goal less than two minutes later, and though Markus Naslund tied the score, the Thrashers never wilted. They toughed it out through a second period in which they had to kill 7:47 in penalties and survive 1:14 at a two-man disadvantage. They fought back for a tie after Nikolai Zherdev’s third-period power-play goal gave New York a 2-1 lead.
But the Thrashers didn’t have long to celebrate Bryan Little’s team-best fifth goal of the season, scored at 10:28 of the third period off a strong centering pass from Todd White.
Henrik Lundqvist would shut the door the rest of the way en route to 27 saves, and a turnover in the neutral zone was about to ruin Atlanta’s night.
Jason Williams lost the puck, and Zherdev raced up ice. When Lehtonen cut off the angle Zherdev skated around the back of the net, then fired a centering pass through the crease. Lehtonen dived to keep the puck out of his net, and he was still down when Girardi sent home the game-winner from the boards.
“It was a lucky shot there,” Girardi said. “It was rolling, and I took a whack at it. And that was it.”
Anderson said the play should never have gotten to that point.
“If we turn it over there, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got guys coming back,” he said. “It was like we went brain dead. We were running all over the place.”
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