Atlanta Thrashers vs. New York Rangers
Ilya Kovalchuk lead by example last night; the Thrashers played one heck of a game last night but it looked like the Rangers were going to control the game right down to the last minute. That is until Kovalchuk snaked around the Rangers net and the last 21 second of the second period and brought the Thrashers back into the game with a wrap-around.
Last night the Thrashers were back to play some hockey, they went up against the Rangers who were there to try move up the standings a little further and securing their playoff spot. But the Thrashers were having none of that, the first period didn’t see much action for the first five minutes of the game, the refs were busy calling absolutely everything on both sides of the ice. After it calmed down the game was fast paced and end to end with only one goal scored by the Rangers’ Right Wing Nikolai Zherdev. Drury thought he scored but he hit the puck in with a high stick and the goal was waived off after a very long review.
Towards the end of the first period Kari Lehtonen was knocked down into the net by Todd White (though Sean Avery took a penalty for it), he finished out the first period but didn’t return for the rest of the game, the Moose came in and got the job done though.
The second period saw even more penalty calls, 8 in all for the second period alone, and most of the goals scored in the game were in the second period. The first came by Slava Kozlov early in the first tying the game at one each for the Thrashers, but the Rangers took back control of the game and scored three more goals give them a 4 – 1 lead over the Thrashers. This is when the heroics and leadership of Ilay Kovalchuk kicked in and he scored the wrap-around described above making it 4 – 2 Rangers.
At the third the Thrashers came out and did everything they could to try and win or tie it up, they succeeded in tying it up by finding the back of the net on twice, Armstrong and White both assisted by Kovalchuk, and only letting the Rangers get off four shots the entire period.
The overtime period saw no goals scored but still an exciting period, and the shootout went 6 rounds with both goalies were on the job but it was Thrashers Center Todd White who was the lone gunman and giving the Thrashers a 5 – 4 victory over the Rangers.
Rangers Coach John Tortorella said in an interview that the Thrashers were a dangerous team right now because they had nothing to play for but pride, could there be a better compliment for a team with a losing record? Jim Slater was quoted saying that they were there for the rest of the season to be a menace to the bubble teams; that makes me excited about these last 7 games. Good luck to Florida and Buffalo, I think they’re going to need it.
My Three Stars:
1. Todd White for the winning goal in the shootout
2. Ilya Kovalchuk for leading by example
3. Johan Hedberg for doing his job and making it look easy
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