Despite the fact that the Thrashers allowed 46 shots on goal agains the Washington Capitals tonight, they walked away with a convincing 3-1 win over the Southeast Division leaders. The Thrashers now are 3-1-1 against the Capitals this season, and finally won for the first time in 8 games in Washington.
The story of the third period was the refs. They both had phantom calls and missed calls on both teams, and each squad wound up with power plays – Atlanta with two and Washington with three. Atlanta’s first powerplay came at 2:19 when David Steckel went in to hit Tobias Enstrom; Toby turned away, and Steckel’s knee made contact with Enstrom’s. Andrew Ladd scored on the resulting powerplay. Two tripping calls, one on Jim Slater and one on Dustin Byfuglien, gave the Capitals chances to even the score, but they failed to convert.
Ondrej Pavelec continues to be amazing, reading shots through players directly in-front of his net that he had no business being able to read. He proved that Tuesday’s game against Pittsburgh, the first since November 13th that he allowed more than two goals, was apparently a fluke.
Ondrej Pavelec, after being injured in the third period, went to the locker room and returned to the bench. He tested his knee, however, and returned to the room and did not come back to the game. I’m going to question his being in the line-up Monday night against the Predators. Tim Stapleton and Freddy Meyer might both get a chance to play against Nashville.