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Hossa helps Thrashers edge Hurricanes

Jan 3, 2008 - 4:47 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The Atlanta Thrashers are showing why they won the Southeast Division last season.

Marian Hossa scored with 32 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Thrashers to a 5-4 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday in the first game of a home-and-home series.

The teams will square off again on Friday in Atlanta.

Carolina, which suffered its third straight loss, still maintains a three-point lead over Atlanta in the division race, although the Thrashers have one game in hand.

With Atlanta on a 4-on-3 power play in overtime, Ilya Kovalchuk wristed a pass from the top of the right faceoff circle to Hossa, who tapped the puck past goaltender Cam Ward for his sixth career overtime tally.

"Our game plan was to be patient and wait for mistakes in their zone," Hossa said.

Kovalchuk scored his NHL-leading 33rd goal and added three assists for Atlanta, which was outshot, 36-14.

"We didn't get a lot of shots, but we had great scoring chances," Atlanta coach Don Waddell said. "We got the lead and we sat back. They were able to get a couple of bounces, but the important thing is how we battled back."

"It's a tough way to end it," Carolina's Ray Whitney said. "We played hard to get back in it. We held them to 14 shots."

Erik Cole's goal with 4:31 remaining in the third period tied the game at 4-4. Cole corralled a rebound and fired a sharp-angle shot that netminder Johan Hedberg was unable to control for his ninth goal of the season.

Atlanta gained a 4-3 lead with 5:59 remaining after Kovalchuk stole the puck in the offensive zone, skated toward the net and fed captain Bobby Holik on the doorstep for an easy tally.

With the Thrashers leading, 3-1, midway into the third period, Eric Staal and Andrew Ladd tallied 79 seconds apart to level the game.

Staal scored on the power play with under 12 minutes to play, and it took only a short period of time for Ladd to tie it when he put in a rebound. Both goals came from in front of the crease after Hedberg failed to control the initial shots.

"We were leading, 3-1, and we gave up too many opportunities to them," Kovalchuk said. "They tied the game. We can't take those kinds of penalties. We have to stay away from their power play because it's pretty good. I think our (penalty-killing) was really pretty good."

"I think when you have a two-goal lead, maybe you play a little bit of a different game," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "Offensively, it showed a little more results in the third period, but I think we were trying to do the right thing. I think there's a process in order to win a hockey game, and I thought the process was correct tonight. But the results were disappointing."

Vyacheslav Kozlov opened the scoring just 3:06 into the game, when he beat Ward to the glove side from the right circle.

The Hurricanes evened the game just 39 seconds later after defenseman Tim Gleason's shot deflected off Whitney's skate and past Hedberg.

Kovalchuk regained the lead for the Thrashers after he split two defenders just after gaining the blue line and beat Ward at 12:26.

Former Hurricane Mark Recchi extended Atlanta's lead to 3-1 with 5:43 remaining in the second period.

After the Thrashers won a faceoff in the offensive zone, Kovalchuk's blast ricocheted off the boards and right to Recchi, who beat an out-of-position Ward for his eighth goal of the season.