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Lehtonen, Thrashers edge Rangers in shootout

Feb 4, 2009 - 5:12 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- After a deflating final minute, Kari Lehtonen and the Atlanta Thrashers needed a break to regroup. They had two and spoiled a big night for the New York Rangers.

Lehtonen made 39 saves before making a pair of critical stops in the shootout as the Thrashers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Rangers on Tuesday.

Bryan Little and Vyacheslav Kozlov scored in the bonus format and Joseph Motzko netted his first goal of the campaign for the Thrashers, who improved to 3-0 in shootouts this season.

"Of course you're not happy when they tie the game," Atlanta defenseman Niclas Havelid said. "But you still have chances to score on the 4-on-4 and we're good in shootouts - and we took advantage of it."

Markus Naslund tied the contest with 11 seconds left in regulation and tallied in the bonus format and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots for the Rangers, who lost their third straight game after honoring Adam Graves with a 60-minute ceremony to retire his No. 9 jersey.

"It would have been tough to lose this one, 1-0, again," Lundqvist said. "But we came up big in the last minute. It's a big point for us, but we definitely needed two points tonight. It's pretty disappointing."

Naslund opened the shootout by deking Lehtonen and tucking in a backhand, but Little answered on his attempt in the first round with a wrist shot that bounced off the goalpost before going in.

"I kind of had in my mind the whole time I was going to shoot there," Little said. "I tried deking in my last shootout and I missed. I decided before (the shootout) I was going to shoot low glove and it worked out."

After Lehtonen denied Nikolai Zherdev's attempt in the next frame, Kozlov beat Lundqvist with a snap shot to the stick side. Lehtonen then stopped Fredrik Sjostrom to secure the win for Atlanta.

"We haven't won here in a long time," Lehtonen said. "But then it was a good couple of minute break after the third period and the overtime. That was kind of time for me to regroup and then go at it again."

Motzko had snapped a scoreless tie at 6:26 of the third period, accepting a centering pass from Marty Reasoner and firing a one-timer past Lundqvist.

Ilya Kovalchuk, who leads the Thrashers with 21 goals this season, squandered a golden opportunity to seal the victory, shooting wide on an empty net with less than a minute to go.

"I think Kovy would like to have that one that back," Little said. "But we're happy, we have the two points - shootout or not."

"It's been a struggle all year," Atlanta coach John Anderson said. "Certainly when you come into New York on a pretty electric night with the Adam Graves thing, it's going to be a tough game for us. So I'm glad we came up big."

The Rangers capitalized on that mistake and picked up a crucial point as Naslund unleashed a wrist shot from the slot past Lehtonen with 10.7 ticks remaining to tie the game at 1-1.

Naslund's goal snapped New York's scoreless streak at 125 minutes, 54 seconds.

"I can't just pinpoint one thing," Naslund said of the scoring slump. "The way to get out of this is to simplify it and just drive to the net and get rebounds."