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Hurricanes-Thrashers Preview

Mar 28, 2010 - 6:23 PM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Carolina (31-35-9) at Atlanta (33-30-12), 7:00 p.m. EDT

A weekend victory at Carolina helped the Atlanta Thrashers end a recent rough stretch. A second straight win over the Hurricanes could further help their playoff chances.

The Thrashers hope that's the case as they try to avoid a third consecutive home loss to the Hurricanes Monday night in the back end of a home-and-home series.

Atlanta (33-30-12) hasn't made the playoffs since 2006-07, but a 5-1-1 stretch has them sitting ninth in the Eastern Conference, two points out of the final playoff spot.

"We have to do our best when we have it in our control," Thrashers coach John Anderson said of his team's pursuit of reaching the postseason for the second time in franchise history.

Coming off a pair of losses, the Thrashers bounced back with a 4-0 win at Carolina on Saturday. Rich Peverley and Evgeny Artyukhin scored 57 seconds apart and Johan Hedberg made 34 saves for his second shutout of the season.

"They came out more desperate than we did," Carolina captain Eric Staal said.

After being outscored 6-1 in its previous two games, Atlanta broke out offensively and held Carolina (31-35-9) to 15 shots over the first two periods.

"We stayed with it the whole way," Hedberg said. "We didn't have any lapses, which is key. We didn't beat ourselves."

Hedberg, who's won four of five starts, is 3-1-0 with a 2.26 goals-against average against Carolina since the start of the 2008-09 season.

Peverley has two of his career-high 21 goals and two assists in his last four games. He has four with an assist against the Hurricanes this season, but only one of those goals came at home.

Though the Thrashers won all three meetings in Raleigh, they've been outscored 9-2 in losing both home games in the season series. The Hurricanes won 4-0 at Atlanta on March 7.

Carolina's Manny Legace made 27 saves in that contest and 39 on Saturday, but Cam Ward is expected to start in his return from a 19-game absence due to a back injury.

Ward, 1-1-0 with a 3.01 GAA against the Thrashers this season, hasn't played since a 4-1 loss at Calgary on Feb. 3.

On the verge of missing the playoffs after reaching the conference finals last season, Carolina has lost three of four and is seven points behind Atlanta in the East. Staal knows the Hurricanes missed an opportunity Saturday to earn some momentum toward a possible late playoff push in the final two weeks of the season.

"It's frustrating because this was a big home-and-home (series) and I thought if we could beat them both times we would have been one point behind them," Staal told the Hurricanes' official Web site. "But they seemed to have a little bit more desperation than we did."

Staal has three goals and three assists against the Thrashers this season, but he's gone without a point in his last three games overall.