The Atlanta Thrashers proved that they can be an elite team, with an impressive 5-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings Wednesday night. It was a total team effort, with five different goal scorers and 32 saves from Ondrej Pavelec. Coach Ramsay and his players were not intimidated one bit against Detroit. “We talked about not being afraid of this team, not being afraid of anyone,” said Ramsay. “Now we can enjoy the win, and understand what we’re building.”
The Thrash jumped out in front early with a goal from Chris Thorburn, just two minutes and thirty-nine seconds into the first period. After Ron Hainsey was called for tripping, Detroit committed a bad turnover and captain Andrew Ladd capitalized for his second short-handed goal of the season. The Red Wings scored less than 20 seconds later to cut the Thrasher lead to 2-1. From then on, it was all Atlanta. Anthony Stewart and Dustin Byfugilien tallied power play goals, and Bryan Little used his break-away speed to net his fourth goal of the season. In the end, it all added up to a 5-1 win for the home team.
Ladd has had many battles with the Red Wings over the years as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. Now that he is with Atlanta, he will only face the Wings once a year, but his experience against Detroit helped towards the win. “It’s always fun,” said Ladd on beating Detroit. “They beat us pretty good during my first year with the Blackhawks, so they’re a good team. Now as a Thrasher, we have a group of guys that were up for this game. We wanted to show everyone what we could do.”
Dustin Byfuglien has been showing everything he can do as a defenseman this year. He is tied with Nick Lidstrom for the league lead in points by a defenseman with 20. More importantly, and perhaps even more impressive, is his league lead in game-winning goals with four. “The fact (that) he scores is tremendous,” said Ramsay. “The fact that he wins a lot of battles in our zone, down low, that he has a good stick, and he’s understanding that if you’re good without the puck and win those battles, you get to go shoot. That’s the concept we’re selling and he’s bought in.”
Lidstrom had high praise for a Thrasher team that is on the rise. “I thought their team played real well defensively,” said the future hall-of-famer. “(They were) very patient in the neutral zone and forced us to make mistakes that they jumped on and scored some goals. So, I thought they played a very solid defensive style game.”
Atlanta has two more games against original six teams this weekend. Montreal comes in Friday, with a first-place lead in the Northeast division. Boston trails the Canadiens by three points and they will pose another challenge on Sunday afternoon. It will be another test for Atlanta, but this 5-1 victory over a team like Detroit, has to give them an enormous amount of confidence going into the weekend.
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