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Thashers, Panthers to meet in Southeast Division battle

Jan 10, 2008 - 1:18 PM Florida (19-21-3) at Atlanta (21-22-1) 7:00 pm EST

ATLANTA (Ticker) - The Atlanta Thrashers host the Florida Panthers on Thursday in a matchup of struggling Southeast Division rivals.

The Panthers have lost five of their past six contests and have seemingly forgotten how to score goals - totaling just four tallies in the five losses.

Florida dropped a home-and-home against the Pittsburgh Penguins in their last two games, totaling just one goal in the two defeats. The Penguins - a team not known for its defense - held the Panthers without a tally until Gregory Campbell slipped the puck between Ty Conklin's pads with 4:09 remaining in the second game.

Olli Jokinen, who leads Florida with 41 points, has just two points and has not found the net during the five-game span.

The Thrashers have been nearly as bad recently - dropping five of their last eight games - but usually have no trouble finding the net. Atlanta ranks fourth in the Eastern Conference with 125 goals.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa each have three goals in the past four games, and Kovalchuk leads the NHL with 35 tallies.

But the Thrashers biggest problem has been on the defensive end, where they have yielded an Eastern Conference-worst 146 goals. Top netminder Johan Hedberg owns a paltry 3.18 goals against average - good for 42nd in the NHL among all qualifiers.

Atlanta has won two of the three meetings between the teams so far this season, with Kovalchuk scoring four goals in the three contests.