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White scores twice to lead Thrashers past Maple Leafs

Nov 26, 2008 - 6:10 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Todd White scored two goals to lead the Atlanta Thrashers to a 6-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

Johan Hedberg made 32 saves and Colby Armstrong, Chris Thorburn, Ilya Kovalchuk and Mathieu Schneider also scored for Atlanta, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

"It doesn't matter what the score is you always want to get an extra one for insurance and today they scored and we came right back every time, so we never let them back into it," Hedberg said.

Nik Antropov, Jeff Finger and Niklas Hagman tallied for the Maple Leafs, who lost their fourth in a row and for the eighth time in 10 games.

"We didn't keep advancing the puck pushing it by them," Toronto coach Ron Wilson said. "We wanted to play a puck possessing advancing game. Our guy's weren't comfortable playing a dump it in forechecking game."

The game marked the Toronto debut of right wing Lee Stempniak, who was acquired via trade from the St. Louis Blues on Monday. Stempniak had an assist and took four shots.

Stempniak may end up helping the offense, but Toronto has surrendered an NHL-worst 78 goals. The Leafs looked to backup goaltender Curtis Joseph to turn things around, but it did not work out.

Making his third start of the season, Joseph made 24 saves but gave up three goals before Toronto could get on the scoreboard themselves. Armstrong opened the scoring at 6:50 of the first period and White and Thorburn scored just under three minutes apart in the middle session to make it 3-0.

"To compete in this league you have to be really good," Joseph said. "I think Atlanta had lost three in a row, so you knew they were going to come out with fire we just couldn't match it tonight and I could have been a little better tonight to keep it close."

Antropov scored his eighth goal of the campaign when his pass deflected off defenseman Ron Hainsey's stick and got past Hedberg. Stempniak picked up an assist on the tally.

"We turned the puck over a little bit too much and that's what they thrive on," Stempniak said. "The way they play, the systems they play, they're banking on turnovers and creating their offense off that."

Kovalchuk scored on a wrist shot to make it 4-1 at 13:05 and the teams each scored a pair of goals in the third period, including White's second of the game with just under five minutes left that made it 6-2.

"We've kind of let other teams dictate the play to us a little bit in terms of hits or chances and we've got to try to initiate more," White said. "I got a lucky bounce there so I'll take those."