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Pavelec, Thrashers blank Capitals

Jan 27, 2011 - 3:54 AM Atlanta, GA (Sports Network) - Ondrej Pavelec stopped 36 shots for his third shutout of the season as the Atlanta Thrashers took a 1-0 decision over the Washington Capitals at Philips Arena.

Nik Antropov scored the lone goal off assists from Ron Hainsey and Freddy Modin for the Thrashers, who came into the game having lost seven of their last eight.

"He was brilliant for us tonight," said Atlanta head coach Craig Ramsay about Pavelec. "It was some great play by him and all of our players tonight. Things haven't been going well, but it's nice to go into the break with a win. It wasn't pretty, but we found a way."

Semyon Varlamov made 23 stops for the Capitals, who have lost their past two games.

"We had too many chances in the second period and should have gotten one through," said Washington forward Alex Ovechkin. "He (Pavelec) made some great saves. We tried to do our best, but we didn't score."

Both teams head into the All-Star break in playoff positions as Washington is 27-15-9 and occupies the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference while Atlanta has a mark of 24-19-9 and is holding on to the eighth and final spot.

The only goal of the game came at the 11:21 mark of the second period. Modin was pressuring a retreating Capital in the Washington end and swept the puck away. From the right circle, he sent a turnaround pass back to Antropov, who snapped a wrister past Varlamov for his ninth goal of the year.

Pavelec had to make 18 saves in the second period and then stopped 10 shots in the final session, including a nice save on a wrister from Mike Green with 48.1 seconds left in the game to hold on for the win.

Game Notes

Atlanta comes back from the break next Tuesday and will host the Islanders...Washington plays next Tuesday at home versus Montreal...The Thrashers won four of the six contests with Washington this season...Pavelec has five shutouts in his career.