Sid the Kid proved to be too much for the Atlanta Thrashers. Penguins’ star Sidney Crosby scored once and had two assists as Pittsburgh pulled out a hard-fought 3-2 victory at Atlanta’s Philips Arena on Thursday night.
The game started well enough, however, for the Thrashers. Slava Kozlov got things going when he took a deflection off an Ilya Kovalchuk shot and sent the puck into an open net past a diving Dany Sabourin, Pittsburgh’s replacement goalie for Marc-Andre Fleury, who sat with an undisclosed injury. The power play goal gave Atlanta a 1-0 lead just 4:41 into the first period.
Another Pittsburgh hooking penalty was called simultaneously to the goal, but Atlanta could not capitalize on the ensuing power play.
A defensive lapse by the Thrashers allowed Pittsburgh to draw even midway through the first. Miroslav Satan was left unguarded right in front of the Atlanta net and he finished a perfect centering pass from Pascal Dupuis for his ninth goal of the season.
After both teams squandered power play opportunities early in the second, including a two-man advantage for the Penguins that lasted for a minute and 18 seconds, Crosby, while falling down in front of the goal, got one past Thrashers netminder Ondrej Pavelec for a 2-1 lead.
An outstanding one-man effort by Atlanta center Jim Slater leveled the score at 2-2 just 1:24 later. Slater emerged from a scramble for the puck behind Pittsburgh’s net and converted a wrap-around on his knees. Eric Perrin was credited with an assist, his second of the game. That sent the Thrashers into the final intermission happy to be all tied up after surviving an array of Pittsburgh power plays.
“We had a lot of chances in the second period, missed a 5-on-3, but recovered,” said Penguins coach Michel Therrien. “Their goalie kept them in the game. He (Pavelec) was fantastic.”
Slater’s heroics set up a dramatic third period that saw squander plenty of opportunities slip by for the Thrashers, including a shot off the post and a Kovalchuk breakaway. Sabourin, however, denied everything.
As overtime began to loom, Crosby went to work once again. He drew a hooking penalty with less than four minutes left in the game then assisted on a power play goal when Petr Sykora redirected a Crosby slapshot into the back of the net with 2:40 remaining. That went down as the gamer-winner, as Atlanta never got another good look even after pulling Pavelec for a 6-on-5 advantage.
“It’s tough to lose like that, especially on a power play goal,” admitted Slater. “Not much else to say but just a tough one all around.”
Dimon can be reached at ridimon@gmail.com.
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