Throughout the season Atlanta has struggled trying to fight off what head coach John Anderson has called the “black-cloud” that has followed the team through the first part of the season. It looked like that cloud reappeared for the first game of 2009 when Atlanta allowed Vancouver to tie the game at 3-3 with nine minutes left in the third period.
However, the new year brought new results as Atlanta kept the game tied throughout regulation and overtime before getting a highlight-reel goal from Erik Christensen to win in a shootout, 4-3. Anderson said it best when he said, “this is one time so far we’ve staved off a black cloud.”
Leading the team to sunshine instead of rain was Erik Christensen, who scored as the team’s fourth shootout participant after the first three shots left the two teams in a 1-1 tie. Christensen deked twice on Vancouver goalie Jason LaBarbera before slamming the puck home past LaBarbera’s right foot.
It wasn’t a new move for Christensen who revealed his fondness for the move. “That’s probably the first thing my dad taught me,” said Christensen. “The double deke, we called it. It’s probably one of the two moves I do during a shootout … probably shouldn’t reveal that.”
As good as the move was, though, Christensen almost didn’t have the chance to make it. With the shootout approaching, Anderson was filling out his card with the names of his three shooters, while getting plenty of dissent from the peanut gallery. “You gotta write the three names down, then [Todd Nelson] starts barking at me, ‘Put Christensen in, put Christensen in’, then [Stephen Roberts] the trainer starts yelling at me. Worked out good, anyway.”
Thankfully Anderson got a redo, and now hopefully the move propels both Christensen and the Thrashers. “No secret it’s been a tough season. Again I had a couple chances tonight, but I couldn’t finish,” said Christensen. “From Kari on out I thought everyone played really well. Yeah we gave up the lead in the third period, but we fought for the tie and fought for that point. Then in the overtime, we didn’t really give up much.”
That lead was lost in the third period after Slava Kozlov gave the Thrashers their second lead of the game early in the third period. Kozlov picked up a rebound off of LeBarbera’s chest before stuffing the puck in for his 16th goal of the season.
The lead was short-lived though, as once again Atlanta couldn’t hold onto a third period lead. Again it was the brothers Sedin doing the damage as Daniel was able to tip in the shot from brother Henrik before sneaking the puck under the arm of Kari Lehtonen. “We didn’t close the gap, we gave him too much time,” said Anderson about the defense his team played with the game-tying goal. “And if you can believe that the shot was going wide, hits the guy and comes back and goes underneath his arm. Who has that kind of luck except us this year?”
Lehtonen had the best angle, and still couldn’t believe the fortune that fell in the Canucks’ lap. “That was just a good tip-in. It was going a little bit wide, I saw it going wide on the blocker side, and their guy just tipped it in,” he said.
That same duo haunted Atlanta all night as the Sedin’s were a part of each of the Canucks’ first two goals. Henrik scored twice on the night, benefiting from passes from his brother Daniel.
For Atlanta, doing the scoring was one of the newest and oldest Thrashers on the roster. Rookie Joey Crabb scored his third goal of the season and the team’s first shorthanded goal of the year when he blasted a slapshot past LaBarbera in the first period. Atlanta’s second goal then came from Ilya Kovalchuk, who scored a goal in his second consecutive game when he one-timed a Jason Williams pass from behind the net past the extended skate of the Vancouver goalie.
Atlanta hits the ice again on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Philips.
Boral can be reached at jboral@scoreatl.com.
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