Thrashers win franchise-record 6th in a row

Their captain watched from the stands, injured. One of their top defensemen also got hurt and sat out the entire third period.

But nothing can stop the Thrashers these days, and for almost 59 minutes Monday night, nothing could get past Kari Lehtonen.

Lehtonen stopped a career-high 49 shots to lead the Thrashers to a franchise-record sixth consecutive victory, 5-1 over division-leading Washington.

The Philips Arena crowd of 13,336 began chanting “Ka-ri, Ka-ri” with 13 1/2 minutes left and repeated the cheer as his save total climbed past his previous season high of 41 and career high of 46.

Ten of those saves came against reigning league MVP Alex Ovechkin. Nineteen of the saves came in the third period, as a Capitals team that came to Atlanta 30 points ahead of the Thrashers in the standings tried to stave off embarrassment in a nationally televised game.

Lehtonen came within 1:15 of a shutout and said afterward it didn’t really matter that he didn’t get it.

“That’s right there at the top,” Lehtonen said, when asked where game No. 200 ranked in his NHL career. “I think it was great to have a game like that after a long road trip, to come back here in our own building and keep winning.”

The Thrashers’ last loss came two weeks ago. They beat Montreal and Calgary at home, then won at Colorado, Edmonton and Buffalo. Lehtonen has allowed just 1.2 goals per game in his five games during the streak.

Essentially half the victories have come without their best player, Ilya Kovalchuk. The captain and scoring leader aggravated an upper body injury Thursday at Edmonton. Center Jim Slater hurt his shoulder and head at Buffalo and didn’t play Monday. Defenseman Ron Hainsey hurt his lower body Monday night and sat out the third period. None of the three is making the trip to tonight’s game at Pittsburgh.

Monday, though, Lehtonen carried the team.

“It shows you how good a goalie he is,” defenseman Garnet Exelby said. “When he’s on top of his game like he was tonight, he’s as good if not the best I’ve seen.”

Kovalchuk’s replacement, Brett Sterling, drew four penalties on the Capitals, and the Thrashers converted three of those into power play goals.

Slava Kozlov, playing in his franchise-record-tying 190th consecutive game, scored one and assisted on another. Defenseman Anssi Salmela, acquired from the New Jersey Devils in the Niclas Havelid trade, scored another, his first NHL goal.

Colby Armstrong, Tobias Enstrom and Eric Perrin also scored for the Thrashers.

Eric Fehr scored Washington’s goal with the Capitals’ 48th shot.

The Thrashers, once the last place team in the NHL, climbed into 26th place with the victory. They’ve known for months they aren’t going to make the playoffs, but they keep getting better, anyway.

“Certainly as a coaching staff and a management staff it certainly makes you feel good about your young players and the directions that you are heading,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We feel good about ourselves.

“Hopefully our coaching staff and this team as we are now takes this and starts to improve with it and run with it and not say that’s enough. We have to get that thought of winning all the time and daresay become a championship team.”