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Hossa powers Red Wings past Thrashers

Oct 25, 2008 - 3:16 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Marian Hossa continues to have his way with the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Slovakian recorded two goals and one assist against his former team as the Detroit Red Wings held on for a 5-3 triumph over the Thrashers on Friday.

Henrik Zetterberg also netted a pair of goals and Daniel Cleary added an empty-netter with 35 seconds remaining in the third period for Detroit, which improved to 5-0-1 in its last six contests.

Defenseman Brian Rafalski notched two assists and Chris Osgood made 30 saves for the Red Wings.

Jim Slater, defenseman Ron Hainsey and Brett Sterling scored and Kari Lehtonen turned aside 41 shots for Atlanta, which has won just once since recording a victory in its season-opening contest.

Hossa has 15 goals and seven assists in 20 career games against Atlanta, including a career-best four-goal performance on January 2, 2003 while with the Ottawa Senators.

The 28-year-old admitted he was excited to face the Thrashers, a team with which he played from 2005-08.

"Definitely, playing your former team and knowing a lot of guys on the team - you play with a little more jump," Hossa said. "Today, I felt good and we created a lot of chances. We played well until the end."

"He's a great player. Certainly the Atlanta people know that because he was here a couple of years," Thrashers first-year coach John Anderson said.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock agreed.

"I thought Hossa was absolutely fantastic. He was a little motivated and absolutely, he put on a great show," he said. "He's just a real strong guy, dynamic offensively and defensively. ... He, Pav (Pavel Datsyuk) and Hank are all great with or without the puck. That's what makes them all so usable."

With the game tied at 1-1 with 4:18 remaining in the first period, Hossa skated around former Red Wings defenseman Mathieu Schneider and waited for Lehtonen to go down to the ice before tucking the puck just inside the right goalpost.

"A 1-on-1, I was a little too far out and couldn't recover," Lehtonen said. "It's just his skill. He made us look very bad on that play. He made a nice goal."

"It seemed every time (Hossa) got the puck in our zone, he created something toward the goal," Hainsey said.

Hossa doubled Detroit's advantage 5:29 into the second period and Zetterberg added his second tally of the night just 72 seconds later to open a 4-1 advantage.

Last postseason's Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Zetterberg opened the scoring just 2:12 into the contest with a power-play tally, marking the fifth consecutive game in which the Red Wings have recorded a goal with the man advantage.

"It's nice when you get the chance to put them away," Zetterberg said. "On the first one, I got a nice pass from (Jiri Hudler). I tried to pick my corner and hope that (Lehtonen) would miss."