Good-bounce goal by Hainsey leads Thrashers to shootout win against Blues

November 8, 9:40 PMAtlanta Thrashers ExaminerPhil Foley

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Hedberg pokes aside a shot by Brad Boyes' in the shootout to seal the win for Atlanta on Sunday.

(AP Photo/Gregory Smith)

The puck finally bounced the Atlanta Thrashers’ way at home.

Richard Peverley and Slava Kozlov found the net in the shootout and Ron Hainsey tied the score with a good-bounce goal in the third period, leading the Thrashers to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday evening at Philips Arena.

Tobias Enstrom tallied and Marty Reasoner added a pair of assists for Atlanta, which snapped a four-game home losing streak.

“I just felt like this was the best overall game we played in the last five,” Thrashers coach John Anderson said. “It’s funny. When you do the right things, good things seem to happen.”

Listless Atlanta has not held a lead at home since its opening night win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

However, the Thrashers finally got a break they needed to win this one.

It looked like it wasn’t going to be Atlanta’s night as St. Louis netminder Ty Conklin stymied the Thrashers at every turn, including committing absolute grand larceny on Kozlov late in the third period.

But moments later, Hainsey lofted a 76-foot shot from the neutral zone, which bounced off of a patch of rough ice and knuckled over Conklin’s glove, tying the game at 2 with 3:31 seconds left.

“We had a lot of good chances, but Conklin made some big saves,” Reasoner said. “It’s nice to catch one break that put us in the right direction for these next home games.”

The tally was reminiscent of a goal by Washington’s Jeff Schultz 150-footer, which doomed the Thrashers here on October 22.

“You always hope that those bounces even out,” Reasoner said. “We had that one shot in the Washington game, so we got even today.”

“This is a game of bounces and the team that works the hardest gets them,” Atlanta netminder Johan Hedberg said. “I think in the third we worked the hardest and we deserved it.”

Buoyed with newly found confidence, Atlanta sent the game into the bonus format when Peverley and Kozlov worked their magic.

Pevs beat Conklin top shelf with a wrister past the netminder’s glove, much to the chagrin of Conklin, who beat his Gatorade holder off of the netting after the tally.

Andy McDonald followed with a wrister that trickled through the legs of Atlanta goaltender Johan Hedberg, but rattled off the post before Kozlov won it with his patented stick-side shot, which beat Conklin to the left side of the net.

Hedberg poke checked Brad Boyes’ last gasp effort to send the shootout to the extra round, sealing the victory. Boyes put the puck into the net after his first effort. However, since the forward did not score on his first offering, the game was over.

“Boyes is really, really shifty,” Hedberg said. “He put his head down. I wasn’t aware of the rule once I hit it. We’ll take it though.”

The road warrior Thrashers had been very, very good on the highway, but putrid at home entering this weekend’s games against the New York Islanders in Long Island and the Blues at “Blueland.”

Atlanta came out flat in Uniondale, dropping a disappointing 6-3 decision to the offensively-challenged Islanders before returning home for a Sunday contest against St. Louis.

Anderson switched up Atlanta’s lines after Saturday’s debacle, interchanging Zach Bogosian with Hainsey and Enstrom with Pavel Kubina and shuffling Atlanta’s top-three forward lines.

“Toby and Bogo are really dynamic together, but I think they were just trying to do too much offensively,” Anderson said. “So we kind of paired them off with a couple of older guys to try to get a little confidence.”

Atlanta responded with one of their best defensive games at Philips Arena.

“We weren’t floundering in our own zone as much because we played the body a lot more and helped out when the time was right,” Anderson admitted. “Forwards were collapsing in front of the net -- all of the little things that add up. I thought that our concerted effort was much better tonight.”

However, this one started off like the last four here, as Atlanta spotted an opponent a multi-goal lead.

Hainsey got beat on a home run pass from Erik Johnson to David Perron. Perron drew a poke check from a diving Johan Hedberg, but McDonald beat Bogosian to the puck and deposited it into the vacated Atlanta net, giving the Blues a 1-0 lead 6:55 into the second period.

The Blues doubled the advantage on a power play tally from the left point by Perron 7:08 into the third before Atlanta finally went to work.

You can thank a defensive play by Mark Popovic, breaking up a 2-on-1 break to spark the Thrashers in this one.

Enstrom followed with a low-angle shot from the right faceoff circle, beating Conklin stick side to cut halve the deficit with 7:01 remaining.

Atlanta posted 17 shots over the first two frames before exploding for 23 shots in the final 25 minutes.

“We needed to get pucks on net and shoot more and we did that in the third,” Bogosian said. “This is a big win for us. It feels good to be back in the win column.”

Hedberg set aside 30 shots for the Thrashers, whose last seven goals have been scored by defensemen.