ATLANTA – Marian Hossa scored the only goal in a shootout to lift the Atlanta Thrashers to a 4-3 victory over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.
It was Atlanta’s first shootout victory in five tries. Nashville fell to 4-2 in the NHL’s new tiebreaker.
Thrashers goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped Steve Sullivan, Paul Kariya and Marek Zidlicky in the shootout.
Nashville led 1-0 through two periods but needed two goals in the third period by Yanic Perreault to force overtime. Atlanta rallied in the period behind goals by Slava Kozlov, Ilya Kovalchuk and Marc Savard.
Tomas Vokoun shut out the Thrashers through two periods, stopping 23 shots. Led by three of the NHL’s top nine scorers, the Thrashers began the night third in the league with 158 goals.
Trailing 1-0, Atlanta finally broke through on Kozlov’s shot past Vokoun from in front of the net less than 2 minutes into the third period.
Nashville answered quickly on Perreault’s first goal about 6 minutes into the period for a 2-1 lead, but the Thrashers again pulled even on Kovalchuk’s league-leading 33rd goal.
The Thrashers took their first lead 12 minutes into the third on their first power-play goal of the game. Savard scored on an assist from Kovalchuk for a 3-2 Atlanta lead.
Lehtonen protected the advantage with a glove save of a breakaway shot by Sullivan with 5:21 left. After diving for Sullivan’s fake, Lehtonen was face-down on the ice when he reached up for the save.
Blue Jackets 6, Penguins 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jaroslav Balastik scored twice, Sergei Fedorov and Rick Nash each had a goal and two assists and the Columbus Blue Jackets sent the Pittsburgh Penguins to their fourth consecutive loss with a 6-1 victory Wednesday night.
A day after Penguins coach Michel Therrien said his teams’ performance was “pathetic” and that half of the team “doesn’t care” in a 3-1 home loss to Edmonton, Pittsburgh allowed a goal 10 seconds into the game and spent much of the game throwing punches.
There were six fights, two at one time in the second and third periods, as the teams combined for 152 penalty minutes, tying a Blue Jackets team record.
Ryan Malone scored the lone goal for the Penguins and rookie Sidney Crosby, the teams’ leading scorer with 48 points, was held pointless for the second consecutive game after a 10-game points streak.
Flyers 5, Blackhawks 2
CHICAGO – Mike Knuble scored on a deflection with 8:33 left in the third period, snapping a tie and lifting the Philadelphia Flyers to a 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.
At the edge of the crease, Knuble redirected Michal Handzus’ shot from the left-wing boards past goalie Craig Anderson.
Mike Richards added an insurance goal with 6:25 left. Branko Radivojevic scored into an empty net with 51 seconds left. Ben Eager and R.J. Umberger also scored for the Flyers, 9-1-1 in their last 11 games. Philadelphia, which played the 10th game of a team-record 11-game road trip on Wednesday.
, is 8-1-1 on the swing.
Radim Vrbata and Andy Hilbert scored for Chicago, which has lost 11 of 12. The Blackhawks broke a 10-game losing streak Tuesday at Washington.
Philadelphia’s Antero Niittymaki made 12 saves. Anderson stopped 26 shots.
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