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Recchi, Hossa help Thrashers to first win in St. Louis

Dec 24, 2007 - 3:12 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Mark Recchi and Marian Hossa finally helped the Atlanta Thrashers leave St. Louis with a victory.

Recchi scored the game-tying goal, and Hossa netted the decisive tally just 19 seconds into the extra session as the Thrashers posted a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.

With the game tied in overtime, Hossa took advantage of a miscue by defenseman Jay McKee, skated past Barret Jackman to the left faceoff circle and wristed a shot past Manny Legace to give the Thrashers their fourth consecutive victory.

"The reason I don't score is I like to make the pass," Hossa said of snapping a seven-game goalless streak. "But it's nice to get the goal when I can, and when I saw their defenseman have trouble handling it, I just had to shoot."

"It's a real vindication about how much our guys want to be a better team and want to win," Recchi said.

It was an tough ending for McKee, who had knocked a loose puck off the St. Louis goal line and under Legace's body midway through the second period to preserve the lead.

"Just when the puck came off the boards and hit the ice, it was a tough bounce," McKee said. "And it's unfortunate in a game that we battled for, ends that way."

Ilya Kovalchuk added his league-leading 29th tally and Kari Lehtonen stopped 18 shots for Atlanta, which picked up its first win in St. Louis in four games here since entering the league in 1999-2000.

Keith Tkachuk put St. Louis up 2-1 early in the third period. However, Atlanta drew even at 2-2 when Recchi tapped home a rebound from the right side with 8:18 remaining in the final period.

Hossa sent a cross-ice pass to defenseman Tobias Enstrom, who fired a shot off Legace's blocker which caromed right to Recchi on the right side for the putback.

In seven games with the Thrashers since they claimed him off waivers on December 8, Recchi has four goals, four assists and the absolute respect of his new coach.

"He's a good guy and a great leader. He leads by example," Thrashers coach Don Waddell said.

Waddell has similar feelings about his team's current play.

"The second period, the last 10 minutes, we got away from our game plan," he said. "In the third period, we did a good job of puck possession and that's how we stayed in the game. This was our fourth game in six nights and our energy was great. I can't say enough about this team."

St. Louis coach Andy Murray had thoughts on the same topic regarding his own team, just not quite as positive.

"I'm not making excuses. I just didn't think we had energy," Murray said. "But I knew this one would be tough."

With the game tied at 1-1 just 11 seconds into a power play, Tkachuk deflected rookie Erik Johnson's wrist shot from the blue line over the pad of Lehtonen at 5:48 of the third period.

Tkachuk has three goals and three assists in his last three games, but it was the lack of a third win that was most on his mind.

"We ran out of juice and they just kept running," Tkachuk said. "We need to be more consistent in the third period."

Jackman opened the scoring in the second period when he banged home a rebound past Lehtonen for his first goal of the season and only the 12th of his career.

Kovalchuk leveled the game at 1-1 with 3:38 left in the period as he blasted a one-timer from the point, a drive that brought a buzz from St. Louis fans and Atlanta's oldest player.

"It's scary how hard he shoots the puck," Recchi said. "When he's in that area, it either hits you or it's in the net."

Legace stopped 22 shots for St. Louis, which had outscored Atlanta, 11-1, in winning all three previous meetings here.