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Kovalchuk, Hossa lead Thrashers past Hurricanes

Feb 21, 2007 - 5:23 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Ilya Kovalchuk came through down the stretch to help the Atlanta Thrashers end a four-game drought.

Kovalchuk snapped a third-period tie with his 33rd goal of the season and Marian Hossa added his 34th as the Thrashers rallied for a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

Atlanta completed a six-game road trip by defeating Carolina for the first time in five meetings this season. The Thrashers also tied a franchise record for most road wins in a campaign (17).

"It was a (heck) of a game," Atlanta coach Bob Hartley said. "There was no room out there. It was almost like playoff hockey. You had to fight for every inch of ice. It was very well played on both sides. It could have gone on either side."

Carolina lost for the first time in 22 games this season when leading after two periods and slipped to 15-12-4 at home.

"The whole game (is) frustrating," Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said. "We lost. It's a big game. We're playing for our division. We're playing for a stake in the postseason. It's frustrating. ... I think we missed some opportunities."

Kovalchuk broke a 1-1 tie with 2:24 remaining by taking Hossa's setup pass on a breakaway and beating goaltender Cam Ward into the top right corner of the net.

"We turned the puck over on the second goal," Laviolette said. "That was the momentum turner. I thought that up until that point, we were doing what we wanted to do. Points left the building."

One game after scoring his 400th career goal, Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour opened the scoring with 2:24 to go in the second period with a wrister from the left faceoff circle that got past netminder Johan Hedberg. It was his 19th tally of the season

Hossa tied the game at 5:53 of the third period with a shorthanded tally when his shot from near the left corner slid along the goal line and banked off Ward's right skate into the net.

"I got there first and I saw the goalie and I basically tried to shoot it on his foot," Hossa said. "I shot it pretty hard. I thought he had it at first and then I saw the puck slowly going in. It kind of surprised me."

"Anytime you give up a goal like that, you try to forget about it as quickly as you can," Ward said. "All I can do is try to forget about it and move on."

Eric Boulton added an insurance goal with 1:18 remaining and Hedberg made 33 saves to raise his record to 6-4-1 for the Thrashers.

"It's always nice to get the insurance," Boulton said. "It just came on a good forechecking play. I think they turned it over and (Eric) Belanger put it on net and I got the rebound."

"I was excited to get to play," Hedberg said. "I haven't played too much this year. Every time you get a chance to play, you want to make the most of it. The way our team has been playing lately, we wanted to have a good game, which certainly we did tonight."

Coming off a season-high 42 saves against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, Ward stopped 20 shots for Carolina, which has dropped three of its last five.