Thrashers win in dramatic fashion on OT goal

“I just kind of stuck it through,” Peverley said of his game-winner, which came in front of a Philips Arena crowd of 11,957.

Peverley scored a short-handed goal at the 12:46 mark of the third period that gave the Thrashers a 5-4 lead. The tally came with 21 seconds remaining in a hooking penalty to Christoph Schubert. With the Stars of the power play, Ron Hainsey got control of the puck and flipped it out of the zone. Colby Armstrong raced to the puck and slid it over to Peverley, who was bearing down on Dallas goaltender Marty Turco.

“I think Army was out of gas there, but he dove for that puck and he’s the reason I got the breakaway,” said Peverley, who also assisted on a second-period goal. “I have to hand it to him. He made a great play. I was just lucky to get through.”

Armstrong said he indeed was tired and was about to come off the ice.

“I think we were out there for almost a minute and a half," Armstrong said. "Ronnie made a nice play to get it out and I was going to go for a change, but I looked up and saw no one there so I thought it would just be a foot race between me and [Brad] Richards. I was close to having nothing left, but I got to it. I saw Pevs jumping up and just got it over to him.”

The lead lasted until Loui Eriksson’s goal with 1:12 remaining in the third period. Ericksson’s game-tying bounced of his face shield and past Thrashers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec.

The Thrashers (18-12-3, 39 points) won for the third time in the last seven games. They were 1-9-1 all-time against Dallas and 0-4-1 at Philips Arena.

Pavelec stopped a personal three-game losing streak by stopping 42 of 47 shots on goal.

“It was my first time [playing] in a week,” Pavelec said. “I had a couple of good practices and I was staying in the game. The most important thing is the win because I played the last [three] games and we didn’t win. More important than me is that we got the win.”

Despite the victory, the Thrashers allowed five goals and were outshot 47-25. The numerous shots at Pavelec, who made several spectacular saves, was a lesson Thrashers coach John Anderson wants his team to learn.

“They put a lot of pucks on the net,” Anderson said. “Our team just hasn’t figured it out yet, to throw pucks at the net all the time and that’s what happens. We are so judicial with our shot selection. That’s why we get outshot, one of the reasons.

"The other reason is we need to pay more attention to what we want to do in our own zone. We have to learn to throw more shots and sustain more pressure. We look for one perfect play. If we don’t get it, then it’s coming back the other way with just a little time in our zone.”

Dallas took a 4-3 lead in the third period on Stephan Robida’s second goal of the game at the 4:43 mark. However, Afinogenov answered for Atlanta with a power-play goal at the 8:27 mark to even the score. The man-up advantage was set up by a holding penalty on Dallas’ Matt Niskanen as Afinogenov rushed the net.

The teams entered the third period tied at 3-3.

The Stars scored twice in the first period on goals by Robidas and Jere Lehtinen. The short-handed goal by Lehtinen was only the second allowed by the Thrashers this season.

After Ilya Kovalchuk’s first-period goal, the Thrashers took the 3-2 lead with second-period goals by Jim Slater and Nik Antropov. Kovalchuk’s goal was the first of his career against Dallas, the only NHL team he had not scored on.

Slater scored his first goal of the season by stealing the puck in the Thrashers offensive zone and rushing toward Stars goaltender Alex Auld. Slater threw the puck on net as he skated around the goal, only to watch it bounce off Auld and into the net.

“Coach has been preaching about going to the net,” Slater said.

The Stars’ Richards took a slashing penalty 12 seconds after Slater’s goal and Antropov gave the Thrashers the lead with a power-play goal.

The goal got Auld replaced by Turco, who had a 6-0-0 record against the Thrashers. Jamie Benn tied the game 3-3 with his goal at the 18:02 mark of the second period.

The win was also the first of the season for the Thrashers wearing their maroon uniforms. They are now 1-4-1 in the alternate sweater this season and 7-12-1 all-time.