Thrashers’ three-goal rally falls short vs. Canadiens

Montreal — It has come to this for the Thrashers: Even the most productive minute of their season couldn’t keep them from dropping into sole possession of last place in the NHL.

The Thrashers scored three goals in a 59-second stretch of the third period to climb into a 3-3 tie. They still lost, 5-4 to the Canadiens.

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AP

Canadiens’ Tom Kostopoulos (6) is knocked down in front of Thrashers goaltender Johan Hedberg attempting to make a save in the first period.

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“It breaks your heart more than anything,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said of yet another comeback producing yet another defeat. “It’s hard, hard on the team.”

Andrei Kostitsyn’s shot with 5:11 left broke the tie, and Robert Lang added an empty-net goal before Jason Williams scored for Atlanta.

The Thrashers are 1-6-1 in their past eight games and 8-13-3 overall. Southeast Division-rival Tampa Bay climbed out of a last-place tie with the Thrashers by picking up a point with an overtime loss in Philadelphia.

Anderson tried to stop his team’s skid by ripping up all but one of his lines and trying something unconventional. Ilya Kovalchuk, the team’s one big-name star, skated with Marty Reasoner and Chris Thorburn, who entered the game ninth and 16th on the Thrashers in scoring.

The result was mixed. Kovalchuk didn’t put a shot on net until the third period, and Reasoner couldn’t take advantage of a cross-crease pass that left him face-to-face with goalie Carey Price in the first. But Kovalchuk, Reasoner and Thorburn did combine for a goal, the fastest one the Thrashers have scored this season.

It took just seven seconds from center-ice faceoff to Thorburn putting the puck in the net from the right circle. That was the game-tying goal, 7:27 into the third period, and it capped a brilliant 59 seconds.

Ron Hainsey started it by scoring on a shot from the middle of the blue line. Seconds later, Montreal’s Tom Kostopoulos was whistled for hooking. Then Hainsey punched home a power-play goal from just outside the crease, with the puck trickling over the goal line by such a small margin it took a replay review to confirm it had gone all the way across. Then, after the long delay, came the super-quick goal.

“It was a good minute,” Hainsey said. “We really stormed back strong there and seemed to be going right along. Then we had a terrible breakdown in the neutral zone [on Kostitsyn’s goal], and that’s it.”

There were breakdowns, yes, but there were also bad breaks. Nathan Oystrick fell down at the blue line on one play, leaving Tomas Plekanec alone to score Montreal’s second goal. Kostitsyn’s wraparound attempt came back to Matt D’Agostini, who slammed it home for the first Montreal goal.

“It’s kind of been the story of our year. We’ve had a couple of bad bounces in critical times,” Anderson said. “Things haven’t changed yet.

“It was stupid bounces and crazy stuff again, and it’s costing us hockey games, costing us points.”

The Thrashers played with effort and guts. Erik Christensen left the ice with a subluxated right shoulder, popped the joint back into place himself and got back in the game.

Still, the team heads into Wednesday night’s game at Ottawa alone in last place in the league, with just 19 points out of 24 games.