The ice finally started to melt around metro Atlanta Friday, but for the Atlanta Thrashers it looked like they were still frozen when they lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2. Throughout the game, Atlanta seemed to have no cohesiveness and were just waiting for a lucky bounce, as opposed to aggressively dictating the play as they have in previous games.
The game remained scoreless through most of two periods. Then, suddenly, Andrew Ladd scored the first goal after Nic Bergfors took a lucky bounce off the boards and centered the puck to him for a slap shot past Flyers goalie Sergei Brobovsky. The Thrashers skated the next two shifts with seemingly no concentration. Philadelphia took full advantage of Atlanta’s poor effort and scored two goals within the next 57 seconds. Both goals were due to the defense not getting back and simply not being ready to face a shot. “We got to be ready on the next shift after they score the first goal,” said goalie Ondrej Pavelec. “It was a huge thing. We led 1-0 and in 30 seconds it was 2-1 for them.”
The Thrashers caught a break at the end of the second by drawing a hooking call. Rich Peverley scored his 12th goal of the year and tied the game with just three seconds left in the period. Despite being outplayed, the momentum shifted on that tying goal going into the third period. That momentum was lost when Philadelphia’s Danny Briere scored 12:48 into the final period. Less than five minutes later, Claude Giroux made the score 4-2. An empty net goal was added to end the game 5-2.
Coach Craig Ramsay was disappointed in the effort of his team. “It’s a commitment to play for sixty minutes,” said Ramsay. “You just can’t take a shift off against a team of this quality and we did. We took a shift or two off.”
The bright spot in the loss was the play in net by Pavelec. Time after time he made a spectacular save to keep the Thrashers in the game. He ended the game with 31 saves on 35 shots. “It’s not enough,” said Pavelec. “We have to be better than we were tonight.”
Even with the loss, the Thrashers are clearly in contention for a playoff spot at this juncture of the season. Currently they sit in eighth place in the Eastern Conference with 51 points. The team remains optimistic about their chances. “This is where we want to be,” said right wing Chris Thorburn. “We want the games to mean something and we’re right in the battle. We’ve won three out of our last 11, but we’re still in the mix. We have a lot of hockey to play, but we have to understand that we have to start winning some games.”
No time like the present to start winning. The Thrashers will get a chance to do that right away against another tough opponent Saturday night at Dallas.
Loading ...
