Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Columbus Blue Jackets (7-5-2) at Atlanta Thrashers (6-4-1), 7 p.m.

The Atlanta Thrashers will aim for their longest winning streak of the season when they welcome the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets for an interconference battle tonight at Philips Arena.

Atlanta has won two in a row for the third time this season, with recent road wins over Montreal and Ottawa. The back-to-back victories come on the heels of a four-game losing streak.

The Thrashers notched a 3-1 win in Ottawa on Saturday and claimed a wild victory Tuesday evening in Montreal. Colby Armstrong's goal late in the third period and 34 saves from Ondrej Pavelec staked Atlanta to the 5-4 victory at Bell Centre.

Rich Peverley recorded a goal and two assists for the Thrashers and pushed his point streak to eight games. Peverley leads Atlanta with 16 points on the year and has five goals and seven assists during his current run.

"It's a crazy game, a lot of chances both ways," said Peverley of the frenetic nature of the contest. That's good for the fans, but I don't think either coach sees it that way. I think every time they scored, we seemed to come back right away and have a good shift. There was a lot of character there."

Bryan Little added a goal and one helper while Pavel Kubina notched his first goal of the season for Atlanta. Nik Antropov added two assists to extend his point streak to five games.

Pavelec has started the last six games for Atlanta and will continue to serves as the team's top goaltending option while regular starter Kari Lehtonen continues to have back problems. Lehtonen has had two back surgeries in the last three months and won't be ready to return for another six-to-eight weeks at the earliest. Pavelec is expected to start again tonight.

Atlanta could have defenseman Ron Hainsey back tonight after he missed the last team's two contests with a lower-body injury. Hainsey, who is questionable to return, has one goal and two assists in nine games this season.

The Thrashers are 1-3-0 as the host this year and have dropped three straight at Philips Arena since beating Tampa Bay to open the season on October 3.

The Blue Jackets. meanwhile, have lost four of five and six of their last eight games and are coming off Wednesday's close setback against visiting San Jose. Dan Boyle had an assist and scored the game-winner in the shootout as the Sharks won their sixth consecutive game with a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jackets.

After the first three shooters missed to begin the shootout, Boyle fired a wrister that found the upper right-hand corner of the net. Evgeni Nabokov then made a pad save on Rick Nash to secure the win for San Jose.

Nash and Jason Chimera scored for the Blue Jackets. Anton Stralman had a pair of assists for Columbus, which got 36 saves from Steve Mason in defeat.

Nash's tally came on the man advantage, giving Columbus a power-play goal in five straight games for the first time since October 17-27, 2007.

The Blue Jackets activated defenseman Jan Hejda off injured reserve prior to Wednesday's game. Hejda had been sidelined since October 13 with a sprained left knee and had nearly 24 minutes of ice time on Wednesday.

Columbus defenseman Mike Commodore (charley horse) and forwards Kristian Huselius (undisclosed) and Derick Brassard (hand) are questionable for tonight's game.

Columbus, which is 4-4-0 as the visiting club this year, will begin a four- game homestand when it hosts Carolina on Saturday.

The Jackets have won two straight and three of their last four encounters with the Thrashers. Columbus ended a three-game road losing streak in the series when it last visited Atlanta on November 22 of last season.