Philadelphia - - As the playoff chase rolls on in the East the Atlanta Thrashers have been taking care of business. They managed to collect some important points this week including an impressive home-and-home sweep of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Atlanta blueliner Ron Hainsey got Atlanta on the board first when his teammates worked the puck around to him and he ripped a wrist shot past Brian Boucher’s (stopped 28 shots) stick side to give his team the 1-0 lead at 2:04 of the first period. The Flyers were behind the 8-ball again.

“We had to win four games this week, really, since we had lost five in a row,” Hainsey said honestly. “That was the only thing that was going to keep us in it; four or five wins and we got nine points out of 10. We’ll enjoy this for a night and now our biggest game of the year is on Tuesday (Atlanta hosts Boston).”

Thrashers forward Todd White put Atlanta up 2-0 when he ripped through the neutral zone, as they caught the Flyers all pinching in the offensive zone, giving Atlanta a 2-on-1 and he buried the slapper at 11:01 to give his team the 2-0 lead. When the puck deflected off Jeff Carter Atlanta was off to the races. Was the game lost at that point? Not quite but the Flyers were fluttering around for sure.

The Flyers were absolutely peppering Atlanta goalie Ondrej Pavelec and he held his own in the second period. Braydon Coburn had the best chance when he unleashed a point shot with eight seconds to go in the period and it hit the corner of the post and that’s when the Thrashers goalie smothered the puck with his back. The Flyers had 19 shots in the second period and were outshooting Atlanta 35-21 in the game.

In the third period Evgeny Artyukhin and Chris Pronger were jawing but Scott Hartnell and Jim Slater actually had the tilt and Hartnell just pounded Slater.

The Flyers got on board at 11:56 when defenseman Matt Carle backhanded a pass to Mike Richards who was in front of the net and he slipped it past Pavelec to make it a 2-1 game. Atlanta's Rich Peverly netted his 20th goal shortly after and that was it for the Flyers.

Pavelec was a stone wall stopping 44 shots. He and Johan Hedberg have turned into a nice tandem for Atlanta, who trails the eighth place Bruins by one point.

“We just couldn’t get through their goalie…He made a lot of key saves,” Danny Briere said, knowing the Flyers were taking a step back.

The soon to be 23-year-old goalie has had a nice season. He doesn’t have the greatest stats in the world but he has some confidence and the team does as well even though they traded franchise goalie Kari Lehtonen and franchise forward Ilya Kovalchuk.

“It was a great weekend for us,” Pavelec stated after the game. “Our PK was the key for tonight. Before camp I always tried to make the team and Kari was hurt so that helped me a little bit and we are here, with “The Moose”. It’s real exciting and I’m really happy for the season but we aren’t done. We need to make the playoffs and then we can say it was a good season. With 10 games left it’s going to be hard work.”

I watched the Bruins just torch the Thrashers 4-0 on December 30th with Kovalchuk on the team. Atlanta had to relieve Pavelec and Boston dominated but now it seems like the tables have turned a bit and the teams are more closely matched. Tuesday’s game is a big one.

Prospect watch - - Rookie Niclas Bergfors was pretty invisible on this night. He only had one shot on goal and his line was on the ice for the Flyers lone goal.