First place will have to wait.
The Thrashers allowed three goals in a span of 88 seconds in the second period en route to a 5-4 loss to Washington on Thursday. A win would have moved the Thrashers past the Capitals and put them atop the Southeast Division standings.
To make matters worse, the go-ahead goal came from 178 feet away.
With the score tied 2-2, Washington killed a Thrashers power play, and defenseman Jeff Schultz sent a clearing pass down the ice from the faceoff dot inside the Capitals' zone. The puck appeared to bounce off a Thrashers player and then take another skip past goaltender Ondrej Pavelec. Washington was up to stay at the 10:20 mark.
“It was a pass, I think,” Pavelec said. “It was a just bad bounce. It hit the ice and went over my shoulder. Sometimes it happens. It just happened at a bad time. Tomorrow is another day.”
It would get worse.
Matt Bradley scored 1:14 later for Washington.
Then worse yet.
Chris Clark scored 14 seconds after that.
Suddenly a tie game turned to a 5-2 deficit and sent Pavelec to the bench in favor of Johan Hedberg. Pavelec stopped just 9 of 14 shots.
“Pretty much it was a mercy pull at that point,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “We don’t blame [Pavelec] for the loss. He was rattled. The whole team was rattled.
“The only thing I didn’t like is we didn’t respond right away. It was like we were in shock and awe there a little bit and waited around. They bang two more in, and that’s pretty much the game right there.”
The Thrashers rallied with two third-period goals. Zach Bogosian scored a short-handed goal, and Ilya Kovalchuk scored a power-play goal with 39 seconds remaining. Despite a flurry over the final seconds, on another power play, the Thrashers fell just short.
“Hopefully, you give your team a boost,” said Hedberg, who stopped all 14 shots he faced. “We played really, really well after that. ... [Pavelec] did everything he could. There is nothing to blame on him. Sometimes you just need to change the momentum.”
The Capitals (5-2-2) lead the division with 12 points. The Thrashers (4-2-1) have nine points in two fewer games. The teams play again next Thursday at Philips Arena.
The Thrashers got good production early out of the newly formed top line of Kovalchuk, Nik Antropov and Max Afinogenov. They combined for three goals and six points. Two of the goals and five of the points came in the first period. Afinogenov and Kovalchuk scored in the opening period, with Antropov assisting on each. Kovalchuk now has nine goals, tying Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin for the NHL lead.
“When everybody speaks the same language … it’s real easy,” Kovalchuk said. “We’ve played together before. It doesn’t matter what line you play with, you have to work hard.”
The Capitals won without a point from Ovechkin. The NHL’s leading scorer entered the game with 23 goals and 26 assists in 30 games against the Thrashers.
The Capitals also got first-period goals from Eric Fehr and Alexandre Giroux. Each Capitals goal was the first of the season for the player, with the exception of Bradley.
“Both teams got some pretty soft goals,” Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. “It wasn’t a very well-played hockey game.”
The Thrashers' special teams kept them close, killing all seven of Washington's power plays -- a total of 12 minutes of man-advantage time.
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