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Islanders thrashed by Atlanta
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ATLANTA — Niclas Bergfors scored twice, and Clarke MacArthur and Evgeny Artyukhin scored in their Atlanta debuts to help the Thrashers beat the New York Islanders 6-3 on Thursday night.

Bergfors, another recent acquisition, has six goals in seven games since being obtained as part of the Ilya Kovalchuk trade with New Jersey.

MacArthur was acquired from Buffalo on Wednesday in a trade for two draft choices. Artyukhin came from Anaheim for a minor leaguer and a draft pick Monday.

Nik Antropov and Maxim Afinogenov also scored for Atlanta, 4-0-2 in its last six games. Bryan Little and Ron Hainsey each had two assists, and Johan Hedberg made 34 saves.

Mark Streit, Rob Schremp and Tim Jackman scored for the Islanders.

The Thrashers chased Islanders goalie Dwayne Roloson in the first period, scoring three goals on seven shots.

Bergfors got Atlanta started with a goal 5:04 into the game. Then Antropov and MacArthur scored in a 25-second span. The first two

Atlanta goals came on feeds from Little, and MacArthur knocked in his own rebound.

Martin Biron didn't fare any better than Roloson when he came in, giving up a goal to Afinogenov on the second shot he faced.

The Islanders made it 4-1 on their 21st shot of the first period, with Streit beating Hedberg on a power-play blast with 17 seconds left.

Atlanta regained its four-goal advantage on Bergfors' power-play goal 10:05 into the second period, and Artykhin scored an unassisted goal on a breakaway with 4:07 remaining in the period.

Schremp scored on a power play for the Islanders with 8:22 remaining in the third period, and Jackman scored with 7:12 left.

NOTES: The Islanders have won just three of their past 13 games. ... With the addition of MacArthur and Artyukhin, Todd White was among the healthy scratches for Atlanta despite having a goal and an assist Tuesday night in a 4-2 victory over Florida. ... The game was the 800th in franchise history for the Thrashers, who joined the NHL as an expansion team in 1999-2000. The franchise has 301 victories
Community Events
Thrashers headed to Canada after team's sale
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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The wait is over for Winnipeg hockey fans.

For Atlanta, it means saying goodbye to another NHL team.

True North Sports and Entertainment scheduled a news conference Tuesday at Winnipeg's MTS Centre to make "a significant community announcement."

True North has been in negotiations with the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers to buy the NHL team and move it to Winnipeg. The deal is reportedly worth $170 million, which includes a $60 million relocation fee that would be split by the rest of the league.

Winnipeg has been without NHL hockey since the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996. The Thrashers entered the league three years later as an expansion franchise, but ownership problems, a losing team and dwindling attendance doomed the club. The team ranked 28th out of 30 teams this year with an average attendance of less than 14,000.

Assuming the deal goes through - it still must be approved by the other owners - Atlanta would become the first city in the NHL's modern era to lose two teams.
The Flames moved to Calgary in 1980 after eight seasons in Atlanta.

True North was making its announcement one day before the start of the Stanley Cup final, which begins Wednesday in Vancouver between the Canucks and the Boston Bruins.
While there was no prohibition on announcing major news during that series, the league preferred to get the Thrashers' sale off its plate before opening its signature event.

For weeks, the two sides had been working through complex legal details on the sale and relocation of the team, while leaving open the possibility that a local buyer would emerge late in the process. No one ever came forward with a serious offer, according to the Thrashers' ownership group, Atlanta Spirit, and the city's mayor, Kasim Reed.

"It is going to hurt the city but we will withstand it just fine and we will get through it," Reed said.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on his weekly radio show that the inability to find an owner who wanted to keep the team in Atlanta was a barrier the league couldn't overcome.

"It would be one of those head scratchers where you say, 'Look at all of this great corporate opportunity, look at all of this grass roots hockey, why doesn't somebody want to own a team here?'" Bettman said. "And that would be a difficult, but unfortunate, situation to be dealing with if it has reached, or does reach, that point."

Bettman was asked if Atlanta had hopes of landing another NHL team if it lost its second franchise.

"The prospect of leaving Atlanta isn't something that I'm particularly fond of," he said. "So I can't even contemplate the notion of what would happen after that in terms of coming back. We respect the importance of Atlanta as a city. It's a big market, but this is a franchise that's got a problem in that market."

Team president Don Waddell says there remains some hope for a late development until a sale is made official and approved by the NHL board of governors, which is scheduled to meet June 21 in New York. But considering Atlanta Spirit, which also owns the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the operating rights to Philips Arena, has been trying for years to sell the hockey team, that seems highly unlikely.

Also, any potential owner would have to agree to become a tenant at Philips Arena, a major stumbling block because it would cut into potential revenue from sources such as concessions, parking, luxury suites and other events.

"Ownership still is committed to selling at a greatly reduced price to anyone committed to Atlanta," Waddell said.