Edmonton Falls to Atlanta; Thrashers Win Streak Extends

Marty Reasoner nets the GWG 4:10 into overtime to seal the deal.

For his first time as a Thrasher, Marty Reasoner enters his former home at Rexall Place. The pressure is on for Reasoner and the Thrashers. With no Ilya Kovalchuk and determination to keep a streak going, Reasoner knows some Thrasher is going to have to put in an ‘A’ game, and that someone is him. A little over 4 minutes into overtime, he finds himself alone receiving a clean overhead pass from Eric Perrin. Here comes Reasoner! Nails it past Dwayne Roloson!

And the Thrashers, the abominable failures for most of the season, have victimized their 7th Western Conference team out of 11 since New Years. The winning streak extends to 4, Atlanta’s once-struggling defense continues to score, and they end their season with the Northwest 5-1.

The Thrashers will head into their last Western Conference match next Friday against the Red Wings.

I have to give credit where it’s due, and not out of obligation. Edmonton, specifically newly acquired O’Sullivan, played an unreal game tonight as did Dwayne Roloson. As a Thrashers fan, Hemsky and Horcoff are two players that I bite my nails to. Both teams played terrific, and there wasn’t a relaxing moment for all 64 minutes.

Although the Thrashers get the two points in the standings, for all intents and purposes, this game was a draw.

• Edmonton wins the powerplay at 1-6. The Thrashers were 1-7.
• Thrashers edge on SOG, 33-32. Roloson and Hedberg both make 29 saves.
• Both teams had a terrific shorthanded effort which left RSN announcers asking, “Who has the powerplay, again?” The Thrashers managed 3 SHSOG, but nothing to show for it.

Kovalchuk left the game in the first period with an upper body injury, however the injury did not occur during the game. How did the team fare without Kovalchuk? As I already said, the Oilers also played phenomenally, so it left Kovalchuk’s puck moving to be much desired. The second period was less than desirable for Thrashers fans; it seems Atlanta took a foot off the pedal until the game was tied.

Since 1999, the franchise win streak record is five. Five stinkin’ consecutive games is all the franchise can hold in ten years. The Thrashers will have to seek to set some records as they hope for Ilya’s quick return, and his return in the long run.

The Thrashers will seek to extend their win streak versus Buffalo this Saturday. The Sabres have not beaten Atlanta since the January 18th, 2008 monstrosity.

Posted by Brian Rudisel on Mar 13 2009. Filed under Atlanta Thrashers, Southeast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.