Pavelec, Thrashers blank Wings 2-0

Atlanta goalie Ondrej Pavelec stopped all 40 of Detroit's shots in the 2-0 victory, his sixth win of the year and his second shutout. The win pushed the Thrashers to a 11-7-3 record (25 points) while the Red Wings are treading water at 11-8-4 (26 points). Losers of three straight, Atlanta won and continued the Detroit struggles as they are 1-3-1 in the last five contests.

Atlanta's off-season acquisition Nik Antropov scored his second goal of the year on a pass from Maxim Afinogenov at 5:02 of the first period. Afinogenov passed the puck across the crease to Antropov who put it into the back of the net behind Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard. Former Red Wing Slava Kozlov also assisted on the goal and then scored one of his own on the power play at 9:08 of the second period. Kozlov scored on a breakaway with an outlet pass from Ilya Kovalchuk to put the lead at 2-0, more than enough with the way Pavelec played in net on the other end. Kovalchuk's lazy pass still ended up on Kozlov's stick as he waltzed in past Nick Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski. The simple deke and backhand sealed the win for the Thrashers

Detroit's offensive struggles continue as they've scored a single goal in the last eight periods of play. Despite outshooting Atlanta 40-25, Detroit was unable to beat Pavelec and limps into a crucial matchup against Calgary on Friday night.

Casey's Wing of the Game: um...do I have to pick one? Yeah? Okay, I'll go with Nick Lidstrom. Lidstrom had four shots on goal, two hits, a takeaway, and most importantly a gaudy 27:04 of ice time..but also let Kozlov by for the nail in the coffin.