Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay warned his team. Carolina will “feast” on turnovers.
The Hurricanes ate well Friday night.
Carolina scored off two Thrashers turnovers in the first period en route to a 6-1 victory at Philips Arena. The win was a needed boost to the Hurricanes’ playoff chances. A win in their season finale, or a New York Rangers regulation loss in theirs, and the Hurricanes will earn the final spot in the Eastern Conference becoming the third team in from the Southeast Division.
Thrashers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec let his frustration show in the third period when he slammed his stick against the boards after the Hurricanes’ fifth goal -- one of three in a span of 2:28.
“I feel like a loser right now, to be honest,” Pavelec said. “Like a loser in front of those people. I have that sensation. We didn’t make [the playoffs]. [The frustration was] my fault of course. I have to control that.
“It happens. You play a bad game. I just felt for myself like a loser. That’s why I did it.”
The Thrashers (34-35-12, 80 points) fell to 1-2-3 against the Hurricanes this season and end their season Sunday by hosting Pittsburgh.
Rookie Jeff Skinner opened the scoring 3:03 into the game. Thrashers defenseman Zach Bogosian turned the puck over in the neutral zone as he tried to get a pass by Tuomo Ruutu. The winger intercepted the puck and started a 3-on-1 rush. A pass to Skinner and his shot beat Pavelec.
The Hurricanes struck again 3:12 later when Bogosian again lost the puck in the neutral zone. Later in the possession, defenseman Ron Hainsey tried a back-handed pass in front of the Thrashers' net. It was intercepted and landed on the stick of Hurricanes forward Erik Cole. The Thrasher killer wasted no time in wristing a shot past Pavelec.
For Cole, it was his fifth goal, and what turned out to be his fourth game-winner, in six contests against the Thrashers this season.
“You can’t do those things,” Bogosian said. “Two mistakes on my part. Obviously, I’ve got to do better than that.”
Cam Ward, making his 36th start in the past 37 games, stopped all but one of the Thrashers’ 19 shots. Bryan Little scored with 39 seconds remaining to prevent the shutout.
Joni Pitkanen scored a power-play goal 32 seconds into the second period to make the score 3-0. The defenseman beat both Thrashers defenders Johnny Oduya and Mark Stuart on a rush.
Brandon Sutter scored 5:22 into the third period -- on another Thrashers defensive-zone turnover. The Hurricanes scored again 1:18 later on a goal by Jussi Jokinen.
Pavelec slammed his stick against the boards in anger, and it bounced off and slid all the way out to the blue line. The goaltender was assessed an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. Just 1:10 later, Ruutu scored on the ensuing power play.
It marked the 26th and 27th times this season the Thrashers have allowed an opponent back-to-back goals in less than two minutes.
Ramsay said he considered pulling Pavelec after the fifth goal.
“I certainly wasn’t blaming the goalie,” he said. “I wanted the team to take responsibility, the players to take responsibility. There was some good talk on the bench that they owed it to him to get back and play our game. I wanted to see our team do it. I felt bad for our goalie. He didn’t deserve that.”
One night after the Thrashers played one of their best defensive games of the season, beating the Rangers 3-0 in New York, they made costly errors.
“It’s that turnover,” Ramsay said. “We make two of them, in the neutral zone, that cost us the game.”
Etc.
Defenseman Tobias Enstrom (shoulder) missed his third game and forward Radek Dvorak (concussion-like symptoms) missed his fifth game. ... Pavelec won this season’s Three Stars Award.
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