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Thrashers get rare win over Flyers
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PHILADELPHIA — A two-goal deficit against a team that hasn’t lost a third-period lead all season in a tough arena to earn a victory sure seemed insurmountable.


Not for the Atlanta Thrashers.

Jim Slater’s second goal of the game snapped a tie and lifted Atlanta to a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

The Thrashers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to earn a rare victory in Philadelphia and hand the Flyers their first loss when leading after two periods. The Flyers were 22-0.

“This was a big win against a good team in an arena we haven’t been successful in the past,” Slater said. “Philly is a tough place to play. It shows a lot of character to score three in the third.”

Ilya Kovalchuk and Rich Peverley also scored for the Thrashers, and Evander Kane set up both of Slater’s goals with nifty wraparound passes.

Atlanta moved one point ahead of the Flyers, who entered the night in a four-way tie for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

“We needed to play a better third period. We needed to play with more energy,” Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. “Our desperation level needs to be higher for 60 minutes. It was sporadic.”

Claude Giroux, Arron Asham and Dan Carcillo had goals for Philadelphia, 11-5-1 in its last 17 games.

The Thrashers have been dominated by Philadelphia during their 10-year history. The Flyers are 29-5-4 against Atlanta, including 14-2-3 at home.

Trailing 3-1, the Thrashers quickly went to work in the third. Kovalchuk scored his 31st goal just 29 seconds in to cut it to 3-2.

He picked up a loose puck off a faceoff and shot one over goalie Ray Emery, who was sprawled on the ice.

A few minutes later, Peverley slipped by the defense, took a long pass from Pavel Kubina and scored a breakaway goal to tie it at 3.

Then Kane skated down the left side, went around the net and placed a perfect pass on Slater’s stick. Slater slipped it in for a 4-3 lead with 6:32.

Kane and Slater hooked up on a similar play to put Atlanta up 1-0 late in the first.

“They were big goals,” Kane said. “I just tried to get to the net and get some space and I put it on his stick.”

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.