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Slava Kozlov scored the eventual game-winning goal midway through the third period and also added an assist, as the Atlanta Thrashers held on for a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers at Philips Arena.
Zach Bogosian and Maxim Afinogenov also tallied, while Rich Peverley registered a pair of assists for Atlanta, which has won four straight. Johan Hedberg stopped 34-of-36 shots.Shawn Horcoff returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with a shoulder injury and lit the lamp for the Oilers, who have dropped three in a row and six of seven overall. Dustin Penner also tallied in defeat. Nikolai Khabibulin finished with 27 saves.With the game tied at two in the third period, Kozlov took a backhand pass from Todd White and fired it over the glove hand of Khabibulin from the middle slot to put the Thrashers in front, 3-2, at 11:59."Whitey passed it to me and I just shot," Kozlov said. "I couldn't see if it was in or not. Lately I have had a lot of shots and they didn't go in."The Oilers had a flurry of chances in the closing seconds but were unable to get the equalizer, and Atlanta held on."We had a slow start, but picked it up later on," Oilers head coach Pat Quinn said. "We created some opportunity and put some pressure on them a number of times and had chances to score. We missed our assignments today and instead of walking away with something, we walked away with nothing."Atlanta opened the scoring 4:37 into the first period while on the power play. Bogosian's one-timer from the top of the left circle on a feed from Ilya Kovalchuk beat Khabibulin to the stick side.Horcoff's redirection 39 seconds into the middle stanza tied the game. The Oilers then worked a perfect two-on-one, with Andrew Cogliano feeding Penner for the goal at 15:13.Afinogenov tallied on the power play with 22 seconds left in the frame to make it a 2-2 after two periods.Game Notes
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