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Kovalchuk, Thrashers look to beat Islanders again

Dec 5, 2007 - 2:16 PM NY Islanders (13-11-1) at Atlanta (12-13-1) 7:00 pm EST

ATLANTA (Ticker) - Ilya Kovalchuk and the Atlanta Thrashers hope another meeting with the New York Islanders will help them get back on track.

Kovalchuk and the Thrashers will be attempting to beat the Islanders for the second time in five days on Wednesday.

Atlanta, which has lost four of five, is coming off a 3-2 shootout loss to New Jersey on Sunday, where Kovalchuk scored his league-leading 22nd goal.

Despite the production from Kovalchuk, Atlanta has had little success recently, outside of its meetings with the Islanders. The Thrashers lone victory in the last five games was a 4-0 win over New York on Saturday.

Kovalchuk had a goal and an assist in that game, but the real story was the return of goaltender Kari Lehtonen. In his first game back from a groin injury that sidelined him for six weeks, Lehtonen stopped 33 shots.

He could have more success against the Islanders, who have scored a league-low 57 goals. On top of that, New York has gone 15 straight games without scoring more than three goals.

Defenseman Chris Campoli scored late in the third period of Monday's 3-1 loss to Boston to save the Islanders to embarrassment of two consecutive shutouts. The one saving grace for New York is that it has won 10 of the 14 meetings against Atlanta here.