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Special teams power Blackhawks over Thrashers

Feb 12, 2009 - 4:31 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Nikolai Khabibulin certainly enjoys playing the Atlanta Thrashers.

The Russian turned aside 36 shots and captain Jonathan Toews scored a power-play goal to snap a tie late in the second period as the Chicago Blackhawks recorded a 3-1 triumph over the Thrashers on Wednesday.

Patrick Sharp also tallied with the man advantage and Dave Bolland added a shorthanded empty-net goal for Chicago, which improved to 5-2-0 on its eight-game road trip.

Defenseman Cam Barker notched a pair of assists as Khabibulin posted his sixth win in his last nine meetings with the Thrashers.

"(Khabibulin) put on a show tonight. He was spectacular and the reason why we won," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "We weren't at our best, but at the same time, he was."

"(Khabibulin) did a great job and our power play did a good job," Sharp added. "It was very important (to get the win) after the way the game started."

All-Star Ilya Kovalchuk scored his team-leading 24th goal and Kari Lehtonen made 25 saves for Atlanta, which fell to 2-7-0 in its last nine contests.

"I thought we were aggressive. That's the type of hockey that I want us to play," Thrashers coach John Anderson said. "Certainly for whatever reason, we just don't get a bounce. It pretty much tells the tale of this season."

"We need points right now," Kovalchuk said. "We played one game real well (a 3-1 win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday), and I think we played pretty hard tonight. I think we deserved more than a 3-1 loss."

With his team on the power play, Sharp opened the scoring with 5:54 remaining in the second period.

All-Star defenseman Brian Campbell gained control of the puck along the left wing boards before feeding Sharp in the near faceoff circle. Sharp settled the puck before wristing it past Lehtonen for his 23rd goal of the season.

Kovalchuk leveled the contest with 1:55 remaining in the session, unleashing a shot past Khabibulin for a power-play tally. It was the captain's seventh goal in his last six games.

Toews responded just 21 seconds later, when he gathered a rebound and tucked it past Lehtonen for his 17th tally.

Kovalchuk nearly tied the game again, but his sharp-angle blast - which beat Khabibulin - came just a moment after time expired in the session.

"It's better if we scored," Kovalchuk said. "But you can't play 20 minutes and 10 seconds in a period."

Just 62 seconds into the third, the Thrashers crashed the net after Vyacheslav Kozlov attempted to stuff the puck past Khabibulin. Although the puck eventually crossed the line, officials ruled that the whistle had blown to stop play.

Atlanta recorded 16 shots in the third period but could not solve Khabibulin.

"We knew we had to battle through it and not get frustrated with puck battles," Toews said. "We did a good job of protecting a one-goal lead."

"In the third period, we were trying so hard to get the game tied," Lehtonen said. "The guys were just doing a great job in front of me. We kept battling hard and had a lot of chances but couldn't put it in."