Tuesday night before the Thrashers game in Toronto, Maxim Afinogenov skated over to Ondrej Pavelec and gave the goalie a little pep talk. “I just told him to play the same way he’s been playing and be confident”, the Russian forward said after the game. “He made some huge saves for us. He was a big part of the win tonight”.

Pavelec took his teammates words to heart as he stopped 27 of the 29 Maple Leafs shots he faced, helping the Thrashers to a 3-2 win in Toronto.

“It was a huge game for us, especially after we lost [Monday night against Carolina]”, Max continued. “We needed to come back and win this game”.

Opie is now 2-0-2 in his last four starts and has a .949 SV% in those games.

Afinogenov did more than talk, though. He backed up his words with action of his own, breaking a scoreless deadlock in the second period with a very nice goal in which he collected the puck to the right of Toronto’s goal, circled around to get himself between the circles, waited just long enough for the play to open up…then snapped one past Jonas Gustavsson for his 23rd goal of the season, tying his career mark.

Evgeny Artyukhin followed up less than a minute later with the Thrashers second goal. He and Marty Reasoner teamed up on a 2 on 1 break after Chris Thorburn’s pass sprung them through center ice.

After the Leafs battled back to tie the game early in the third, former Leafs Nic Antropov …ahem…thrilled his former fans by tipping in a Ron Hainsey shot just moments later. It was Antropov’s 24th of the year.

The win leaves Atlanta 2 points on the outside looking in with 5 games left on the schedule. The teams they are chasing…Boston, Montreal and Philly…each have 82 points with six games left to play.

The five games left for Atlanta…the Caps twice, Pens twice and New Jersey.

So as you can see, given the amount of games and the teams in our path…the road will be a tough one to hoe for the Thrashers even though only a couple of points separate them from a playoff position.

The loss to Atlanta officially eliminates Toronto from the playoffs and the 80 points earned on the season marks only the third time in Thrashers have reached that level in their ten-year history.

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