Ondrej Pavelec and the Thrashers Start a New Win Streak

The Atlanta Thrashers are perfect for the month of the November. as they start out witha two-game winning streak—tying their best winning streak for the third time this season.

The win is hopefully a sign of good things to come after the fast start in October got slowed down the last two weeks.

It was an overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens that knocked the Thrashers off their high-horse and led to a nosedive by dropping their next three games. To add salt to the wound, all three games were at home.

So, last night’s 5-4 win against Montreal (7-8-0) feels so good, and to make it feel great, the win snapped the Canadiens 5-game winning streak.

It also gave the Thrashers (6-4-1) their first victory in regulation at the Bell Centre in over five years.

For the third time in 11 games this season, the Thrashers ended the opening period with a 2-0 lead. The last time they led 2-0 after the first period was a 4-2 win against the New Jersey Devils in the fourth game of the season.

The Thrashers got outshot 38-30, but made sure to make their 30 count.

For the Thrashers, their new star goalie Ondrej Pavelec, continues to be Atlanta’s leader with captain Ilya Kovalchuk still on the bench with a broken right foot. He stopped 34 of the Canadiens 38 shots, including 11-of-13 in the third to keep the Thrashers from giving up the game.

Montreal’s Brian Gionta scored his second goal of the night to tie the game at three early in the third period.

This was one of two quick scores that the Canadiens got past Pavelec. With only 37 seconds left in the second period, Mike Cammalleri scored a goal to jump-start the Canadiens comeback.

Just a few minutes later, Pavel Kubina scored on a power play wrist shot to put the Thrashers ahead again 4-3. It was also Rich Peverley’s third point of the night. It was his second of two assists-with one goal scored in the first period. Peverley remains the teams scoring leader with 16 points now on the season.

Montreal didn’t want to see their comeback go to waste and Tomas Plekanec brought the game to its second tie with a wrist shot at the 12:40 mark.

Less than a minute later, the Thrashers Colby Armstrong got the game-winner, a wrist shot for his second goal of the season.

After Armstrong’s goal, Montreal had just six shots, only three were on goal.

The win moves the Thrashers within one point of tying the Tampa Bay Lightning for second place in the Southeast Division.

Their next game is tomorrow night against the Columbus Blue Jackets.