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Reasoner lifts Thrashers past Oilers in overtime

Mar 13, 2009 - 5:39 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Marty Reasoner made himself right at home in Edmonton.

The former Edmonton center beat Dwayne Roloson on a breakaway at 4:10 of overtime to give the Atlanta Thrashers their fourth straight victory, a 4-3 win over the Oilers on Thursday night.

"It was definitely nice," said Reasoner, who matched his career high of 11 goals and also reached 200 career points. "I had a few chances and (Roloson) had gotten the best of me there, but I figured going in there, worst case, I throw it into his pads and start backchecking, but it squeaked in there."

Jim Slater, Bryan Little and Zach Bogosian scored in regulation and Johan Hedberg finished with 29 saves. The Thrashers have won six of their last eight games.

"I think we played very good as a team," Hedberg said. "They probably need the points more than we do. We're playing for next season, playing for pride, but the last five games are the best we've played all year."

Thrashers captain Ilya Kovalchuk left the ice with an upper body injury in the first period. He didn't return.

"We don't want to say too much right now because we don't know for sure," Atlanta coach John Anderson said. "He's day-to-day as we speak right now. He had a little problem yesterday and I didn't practice him. He said he was OK to go today, and obviously he wasn't, but I've got to give him credit for trying."

Shawn Horcoff, Patrick O'Sullivan and Robert Nilsson scored for Edmonton, and Roloson stopped 29 shots. The Oilers have lost four of their last five, including two straight in overtime.

"To say there was disappointment in the dressing room after a game like that is an understatement, to come up empty like that in overtime," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "Especially in light of the fact there has been three of those in the last eight days with the same result. We can't even get them to the shootout. We've got really strong shooters, and I would have liked our chances in the shootout."

O'Sullivan said a slow start had a lot to do with the outcome.

"I don't think we were as sharp as we needed to be starting that game," O'Sullivan said. "The next time, we need to be ready to go right from the start."

Edmonton took a 3-2 lead with goals 1:23 apart in the second period.

O'Sullivan scored his first goal since being acquired in a trade-deadline deal with Carolina, beating Hedberg with a wrist shot. Nilsson then scored on a rebound after Hedberg made the initial save with the shaft of his stick on Sam Gagner's shot.

Atlanta tied it with eight minutes left in the second on Bogosian's power-play goal.