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Kozlov, Kovalchuk help Thrashers edge Blackhawks

Oct 28, 2007 - 4:56 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Vyacheslav Kozlov made his presence felt in the Windy City.

The veteran scored two goals and Ilya Kovalchuk had a tally and two assists as the Atlanta Thrashers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2, on Saturday.

Atlanta, which lost its first six games of the season, has won three of its last five. Conversely, Chicago started the season winning five of its first seven contests but have now lost three in a row.

"We have had a lot of tough games," Kovalchuk said. "Now we have won two of our last three, and those wins are on the road. Things are starting to get better for us."

The second tally by Kozlov at 7:53 of the third period wound up as the game-winner.

"It was a great play by Ilya to knock the puck down and find me in front of the goal," Kozlov said. "All I had to do is push it past the goalie."

After Kovalchuk knocked downed a clearing attempt at the blue line, he threaded a pass to Kozlov alone in front of the net. Kozlov faced Patrick Lalime and faked left before wrapping the puck around the goaltender for his fourth goal of the season.

"They just tried to clear it out and I was able to jump up and knock it down," Kovalchuk said. "I saw Koz breaking for the net and I passed to him. He made the great play faking out Patrick."

The tally came four minutes after Kovalchuk gave the Thrashers a 2-1 advantage.

The 24-year-old Russian received a feed from Darren Haydar and raced up the wing. Kovalchuk skated in on Lalime, cut across the front of the net and wristed a shot that trickled over the goalie's glove at 3:51 for his sixth goal.

"I was late getting back and Haydar made a nice check to get the puck out to me," Kovalchuk said. "It was a big goal and we worked hard for it."

Jason Williams scored with 69 seconds remaining to halve the deficit, prompting Hedberg to lose his cool and receive an unsportsmanlike penalty after the goal. Atlanta, however, kept Chicago off the board to preserve the victory.

"Their player ran into me and it should not have been a goal," Hedberg said. "I just asked the referee (Bill McCreary) for an explanation on how that could be a goal, and he wouldn't even answer me. I know he has a tough job, but if he would have talked about it, I would not have gotten mad."

Kozlov opened the scoring midway through the first period by deflecting Kovalchuk's wrist shot over the stick of Lalime.

"I was able to get a piece of my stick on it," Kozlov said. "Because I had good position in front of the net."

Chicago's Patrick Kane, the first overall pick of the 2007 draft, evened the contest with the lone goal of the second period.

With Atlanta's Eric Boulton serving an interference penalty on goalie Johan Hedberg, Kane beat the netminder to the short side at 5:08 of the session.

"I was drafted here to help with the offensive production," Kane said. "So far, that has been going pretty good, but I still haven't had my best game yet."

Assisting on the goal was Jonathan Toews, the third overall pick in the 2006 draft. The rookie has registered a point in every game he has played this season.

"The kids (Toews and Kane) having really been stepping up for us," Williams said. "Hopefully, they can continue to do that."

Hedberg finished with 29 saves, while Lalime made 19 for Chicago.