Atlanta Thrashers At Pittsburgh Penguins: Final Score - Penguins 6, Thrashers 3

Crosby didn’t get a hat trick tonight, but he did have two goals and two assists in the Penguins’ 6-3 rout of the Thrashers. Tonight marked the first time all season that Ondrej Pavelec has allowed more than four goals, and chances are good that Pavs might need a few excellent games to get his stats to recover from tonight’s.

Just nine seconds into the period, Chris Kunitz wristed a goal past Pavelec to make the game 4-2. Thirteen minutes later, Mark Letestu got a puck past Pavs, and three minutes and sixteen seconds after that, Matt Cooke tipped a Sidney Crosby shot in to put the Penguins up by four. Eric Boulton scored to bring Atlanta within three, but it was too late.

The Penguins proved why they’re the Eastern Conference’s best team tonight. Washington’s win puts them back into first place, and the Thrashers are now five points back of something that they held as recently as last Tuesday. The Thrashers will have Thursday night to make up some ground if they can defeat the Boston Bruins, which might be a bit more stressful of a matchup than usual, considering the line brawl that broke out last game.

Atlanta Thrashers At Pittsburgh Penguins: Thrashers Sluggish Second Period Costs Them; Craig Adams Scores

The second period looked like the Thrashers were taking a siesta, being outshot 16-5 and allowing a short handed goal to Penguins right winger Craig Adams; it was just his second on the year. That marks the first time that someone other than Sidney Crosby or Evgeny Malkin has scored on Atlanta this year. The Thrashers head into the third period down 3-2. If they can play the third period like they played the first, they can rebound, but another period like the second will extend their losing streak to four games.

Atlanta Thrashers At Pittsburgh Penguins: Thrashers Still Can't Stop Sidney Crosby

The Thrashers played a solid first period, as far as playing against the Pittsburgh Penguins as a team goes. Playing against Sid the Kid? Not so well. At all.

Evander Kane opened the scoring at just 47 seconds into the game, wristing one past Marc Andre Fleury. The entire first period showed a good, fast presence of the Thrashers’ second line for the night. The line of Kane-Alexander Burmistrov-Bryan Little has been fast and zippy and have created the most chances for the Thrashers.

Ten minutes later, Crosby scored a powerplay goal (awarded on a Tobias Enstrom penalty) to extend his point streak to 25 games. Left completely uncovered to Pavelec’s left, he snapped home a shot from Chris Letang.

On a powerplay of their own, the Thrashers got the goal back with a shot from the point by Dustin Byfuglien. Buff sent the pass from Enstrom high over sprawling Penguins defenders, off the crossbar, and down behind Fleury, who was challenging far out in front of his crease.

Sidney Crosby, again, scored on a bit of a break-away snapping a shot past Ondrej Pavelec’s extended glove, ending the period at a 2-2 tie. Crosby and Evgeny Malkin have score the past nine goals that the Thrashers have allowed to the Penguins.

Atlanta Thrashers Schedule: Thrashers Need To Hold Off Pittsburgh Penguins

The Thrashers traditionally have problems with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Counting the two losses to them this season, they're 11-26-0-5 all time against them. So far this season, they're less 0-2 to the Penguins as a team and more 0-2 to Evgeny Malkin and Sidney Crosby. Geno has three goals against the Thrash this team, all in the Penguins' November 13th 4-3 win. Crosby scored one in that game, and then scored all three goals in the Penguins 3-2 win over the Thrashers on December 2nd. 

So, the key to tonight's game is to cover the two of them, right? Easier said than done. Crosby is riding a 24 game point streak right now, and is having yet another career season in a career apparently filled with them. He leads the league with 61 points (eleven over second place Steven Stamkos) and 30 goals in just 37 games.  Malkin's season isn't as bright as Crosby's - he has 13 goals and 19 assists in 32 games - but he's still playing extremely well, and can steamroll the opposition when required.

What do the Thrashers have up their sleeve? Patrice Cormier. The former captain of the Canadian World Junior team, Cormier recently returned to action in November for the Chicago Wolves. The center broke his foot during rookie camp in September blocking a shot in a scrimmage game that his team was losing. So far with the Wolves, Cormier is 2-3-5 with a +8 rating in just 11 games. He and Alex Burmistrov, who has been struggling lately, hit it off during prospect camp. Hopefully having Cormier up will give Burmistrov a bit of a spark. Cormier has a presence on the ice that's older than his age, quickly becoming a leader at camp and noticeably having a positive influence over the other youngsters. He'll be centering Ben Eager and Fredrik Modin tonight, so look for two big and bruising lines at the Thrashers back end between this one and the Greek Gods. The other two lines are:

Ladd-Peverley-Stewart

Kane-Burmistrov-Little

As mentioned, Nik Antropov did not make the trip to Pittsburgh, and Tim Stapleton was returned to the Chicago Wolves. A goal for tonight is not only to win, but to break a three game losing streak and to get the once-first overall powerplay back into working condition. That'll be easier said than done, considering that Pittsburgh's penalty kill is first in the league at 87.3%.  

It's also easier said than done considering that Penguins goalie Marc Andre Fleury is playing outstanding hockey, going 7-2-0 with a 2.03 GAA and a .930SV%.