The Atlanta Thrashers are quickly learning how to make their own luck.
Marc Savard scored into an open net after a fortunate bounce off the glass, sending the streaking Thrashers to a 4-2 road victory over New Jersey on Friday night.
PHOTO: AP
With Atlanta on a third-period power play, defenseman Andy Sutton dumped the puck in hard and high along the boards. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur got caught behind his net trying to play the puck and it came ricocheting wildly out in front to Savard, who snapped a 2-all tie with 6:56 to go.
Sutton credited coach Bob Hartley.
"Bob told us before the game to get everything up on the glass," Sutton said. "With the partitions, you never know what kind of bounce you're going to get ... Sure enough in the third, we got a lucky bounce."
Vyacheslav Kozlov scored 15 seconds later on a perfect pass from Dany Heatley, and Atlanta handed the Devils their first loss in regulation since Jan. 4.
The Thrashers improved to 7-2-1 since Hartley took over and won their 19th game overall -- matching last season's total. They're 10 points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
"We're on a roll right now," goalie Byron Dafoe said. "We're looking at that eighth spot. The last month or so it's becoming more and more realistic. Guys are believing more and more in each other and in the system and in our coach."
In other NHL games, it was Vancouver 4, Buffalo 2; Washington 3, the New York Islanders 0; Minnesota 4, San Jose 3; Calgary 4, Edmonton 3; Los Angeles 8, Carolina 2; and Anaheim 3, Phoenix 2.
Ilya Kovalchuk and Dan Snyder also scored for Atlanta, and Dafoe made 26 saves in his first game since Jan. 13.
Stephen Guolla and Patrik Elias scored for the Devils, who had earned points in a franchise-record 14 consecutive games. The loss also snapped a franchise record-tying eight-game winning streak at home and cost New Jersey a chance to take over the league's best record.
"It's been a while," defenseman Brian Rafalski said. ``It does feel a little weird. But it brings us back to reality quickly. It was bound to happen sooner or later.''
Atlanta extended its club-record road winning streak to four games and beat Brodeur for the first time in 13 tries.
Canucks 4, Sabres 2
At Buffalo, New York, Markus Naslund scored his NHL-leading 36th goal and added an assist as Vancouver beat the Sabres.
Daniel Sedin, Artem Chubarov and Brendan Morrison -- with his first goal in 18 games -- also scored for the Canucks, unbeaten in their last five games (2-0-3).
Naslund moved ahead of Mario Lemieux for the league lead with 70 points.
Ales Kotalik and Dmitri Kalinin scored for the Sabres, who have lost five straight.
Capitals 3, Islanders 0
At Washington, Peter Bondra, Jeff Halpern and Steve Konowalchuk each had a goal and an assist, and Olaf Kolzig made 20 saves for the Capitals.
Washington won all four games of the season series and is 23-1-3 in its last 27 games against New York.
Wild 4, Sharks 3
At St. Paul, Minnesota, Cliff Ronning followed a disallowed goal early in the third period with one that counted 45 seconds later to lift Minnesota over San Jose.
The Wild won their 27th game -- more than each of their first two seasons.
Teemu Selanne had a goal and an assist for the Sharks, who lost for only the second time in six games.
Antti Laaksonen, Richard Park and Pascal Dupuis also had goals for Minnesota. Patrick Marleau and Scott Hannan scored for San Jose.
Flames 4, Oilers 3
At Edmonton, Alberta, Jarome Iginla scored his third goal of the game with 1:08 left to lift Calgary over the Oilers.
Chris Drury also scored for the Flames, and Iginla added an assist. Roman Turek made 27 saves. Todd Marchant, Alexei Semenov and Mike York scored for Edmonton.
Kings 8, Hurricanes 2
At Los Angeles, Bryan Smolinski scored three power-play goals for his third career hat trick and Jared Aulin got his first two NHL goals as the Kings sent Carolina to its fifth straight loss.
The Hurricanes, who went to the Stanley Cup finals last season, have dropped 13 of 14 and are 10 points out of a playoff spot with 27 games left. Earlier in the day they traded Sami Kapanen to Philadelphia for Pavel Brendl.
Brad Chartrand, Joe Corvo and Ziggy Palffy also scored for Los Angeles.
Mighty Ducks 3, Coyotes 2
At Anaheim, California, Stanislav Chistov's goal put the Mighty Ducks ahead to stay and Jason Krog had three assists.
Patric Kjellberg and Niclas Havelid also scored in the second period for Anaheim, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped 31 shots. Mike Johnson and Paul Ranheim scored for Phoenix.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS