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Hossa's goal lifts Thrashers over Bruins

Feb 27, 2007 - 4:18 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- Keith Tkachuk was not a factor in his debut with the Atlanta Thrashers. Marian Hossa continued to be a major factor.

Hossa snapped a tie at 7:28 of the third period with his 36th goal of the season, giving the Thrashers a much-needed 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins.

A native of Massachusetts who played one season at Boston University, Tkachuk made his first appearance for the Thrashers in his home territory after being acquired from the St. Louis Blues on Sunday. However, the 34-year-old power forward did not figure in the scoring, recording a minus-1 rating and two shots on goal in just under 17 minutes of ice time.

"It's exciting," Tkachuk said of his initial game for Atlanta. "I had a great time in St. Louis. It was time to move on, and I'm pretty excited about it."

The left wing has 20 goals and 23 assists in 62 games this season.

"Tkachuk definitely brings lots of energy to our team," Hossa said. "He's a strong skater, a power forward, and he goes to the net hard. He plays a physical game and brings lots of experience, also."

Hossa, who entered tied for fifth in the NHL in goals, pulled even with Ottawa's Dany Heatley for fourth by breaking a 2-2 deadlock 7 1/2 minutes into the third. Off a pass from Eric Belanger, who drew Atlanta even early in the second session, the Slovakian snapped a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past goaltender Tim Thomas for his third tally in four games.

"It was a good play by Belanger," Hossa said. "He just dropped me the puck. I tried to take advantage of the screen. He just drove hard to the net and I just tried to shoot behind him. I don't think Thomas saw anything, and the puck just went in. I just wanted to make sure I lifted it and not hit the first guy in front of me."

"I don't believe Hossa scored that third goal," Thomas said. "I saw it come off his stick. It was going to go high and wide, and it hit off a shin pad and bounced back towards the net."

Hossa has scored in each of the three meetings between the teams this season, all victories by Atlanta (32-23-10), which climbed within one point of idle Pittsburgh (33-19-9) for fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

"We said, 'Keep it simple. Let's start with the first goal. Don't worry, don't panic,'" Hossa said. "We stuck with the game plan and started to do little stuff. We put it behind their defense and we kept playing in their zone. We were able to create some penalties and score on the power play."

The right wing, who extended his overall points streak to five games, has six in the season series.

Belanger, who entered with just two goals in his previous 17 contests, tied the game at 2-2 at 2:09 of the second period, when he converted a pass from defenseman Greg de Vries.

Captain Scott Mellanby also scored, Vyacheslav Kozlov added two assists and newly acquired defenseman Alexei Zhitnik set up a goal for the Thrashers, who had lost six of their previous seven games and nine of 11.

Atlanta, which entered 22nd in the league on the power play, went 2-for-5 with the extra skater. Conversely, Boston was 0-for-4.

"I thought 5-on-5, we played really well," Boston coach Dave Lewis said. "We didn't give up many shots, hardly any opportunities. In a game like that, special teams becomes so important, and it turned out their special teams were better than ours."

Kari Lehtonen made 22 saves en route to just his second win in nine starts. The Finn improved to 2-0-0 with only three goals allowed against the Bruins.

Brad Boyes scored his fourth goal in three contests and Shean Donovan also tallied for Boston, which had won six of eight.

"The goals that have been going in for me, it's just being around the net," Boyes said. "Coaches have been preaching that a little more, to just get a stick on it or a body part."

With the loss, the Bruins (30-28-4) fell seven points behind Carolina (32-25-7) for the final postseason spot in the East.