By The Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Kari Lehtonen made 34 saves, and Brad Larsen scored two goals in the Atlanta Thrashers’ 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night in the first game for both teams since the Olympic break.

Vyacheslav Kozlov and Niclas Havelid also scored to help the Thrashers win for the fourth time in their last five games.

Lehtonen helped preserve the victory with 23 stops in the first two periods, and made a spectacular kick save on Derek Roy’s attempt in the low slot with about 3 minutes left in the game. Lehtonen beat Buffalo for the first time in three career games.

Chris Drury, and Maxim Afinogenov scored for Buffalo. The Sabres have lost three of their last four, including an overtime loss and shootout loss.

Kozlov opened the scoring with a power-play goal with 2:49 left in the first period. It was his 19th goal of the season.

Havelid pushed Atlanta’s lead to 2-0 with his fourth goal of the season. Havelid’s one-timer from between the circles on a power play eluded Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller 1:48 into the second.

Drury closed the gap to 2-1 nearly 3 minutes later with a power-play goal, converting J.P. Dumont’s pass for his 18th goal of the season.

Larsen made it 3-1 with his fourth goal, wristing a shot past Miller and into the top right corner from the left circle.

Larsen iced it with an empty-net, short-handed goal with less than a minute to go to make it 4-1, and Afinogenov closed the scoring 14 seconds later.

Devils 2, Flyers 1

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Viktor Kozlov scored in regulation and added the only goal in a shootout to give the New Jersey Devils a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

Kozlov beat Robert Esche with a high shot in the shootout, and New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur stopped Philadelphia’s Mike Richards and Petr Nedved and watched as Peter Forsberg shot wide on the Flyers’ third attempt.

Brodeur made 26 saves for New Jersey, while Esche made 31 stops for Philadelphia. Brian Savage scored the Flyers’ goal in the second period.

Both teams played without leading offensive players who were injured in the Olympics. Philadelphia’s Simon Gagne, the team’s leading scorer with 63 points, is expected to miss up to two weeks with a bone bruise in his right knee. He was hurt in Canada’s quarterfinal loss to Russia. Patrik Elias, who has seven goals and 14 assists in 18 games since returning from hepatitis A, bruised his ribs in the Czech Republic’s 3-2 loss to Switzerland.

The Flyers somehow managed to escape unscathed from the game’s first 8 minutes when they picked up three penalties within a 2:20 span. New Jersey’s best chance came at even strength with 11:20 elapsed when Scott Gomez pounced on a rebound on the left wing but fired high and wide with an open net beckoning.

Senators 4, Penguins 3

PITTSBURGH – Daniel Alfredsson and Dany Heatley scored their 35th goals of the season and the Ottawa Senators built a four-goal lead before holding on to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 on Wednesday night.

The Senators sent nine players to the Olympics in Turin, Italy, but didn’t show any post-Olympic letdown until Pittsburgh’s John LeClair, Andre Roy and Jani Rita scored in an 8-minute span of the third. Rita, acquired from Edmonton last month, scored his first goal for Pittsburgh and set up another in a 33-second stretch that turned a one-sided game into a tight one.

Until the Penguins’ outburst, they had been outscored 16-4 in three games against Ottawa this season, including a 5-2 Senators victory on Feb. 6 that was rookie goalie Ray Emery’s last in net before Wednesday. Emery started because six-time Vezina Trophy winner Dominik Hasek injured his groin 5 minutes into his first Olympic game with the Czech Republic on Feb. 15 and is out indefinitely.

The Senators are 8-1-1 in their last 10 against Pittsburgh, which has lost eight of 10 despite winning its final two before its 17-day Olympic break. The only difference was, for a change, this game was close.

‘Hawks 3, Predators 0

CHICAGO – Craig Anderson made 20 saves for his first shutout of the season and defenseman Dustin Byfuglien scored in his first NHL game to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 3-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.

Rene Bourque and Patrick Sharp also scored to help the Blackhawks snap a three-game losing streak and beat the Predators for the first time in six meetings this season.

Anderson’s shutout was the second of his career.

Nashville has lost four of its last five.

Chris Mason made 30 saves for Nashville. Mason started in place of Tomas Vokoun, who helped the Czech Republic win the bronze medal in the Olympics.

Four other Predators who skated in the Olympics – Czechs Martin Erat and Marek Zidlicky, Russian Danny Markov, and Finn Kimmo Timonen – played Wednesday night. No Blackhawks were in the Olympics. The two teams skated through the opening 7:35 without a whistle. Play finally stopped when Anderson covered up following a save on Steve Sullivan’s shot.

Byfuglien scored his first NHL goal and point with 4:46 left in the first period.

He wristed a high shot from the left point through traffic that slipped past Mason. The goal withstood a video review to determine if the stick of one of the Chicago players screening Mason was too high.