ATLANTA - Dany Heatley and Brad Tapper scored two goals apiece as the streaking Atlanta Thrashers once again beat up on the New York Rangers, winning 5-2 Tuesday night.
Heatley had a hat trick Saturday, leading the Thrashers to a 4-1 victory over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
In the rematch, Heatley scored two more goals, giving him 23 for the season and 11 in the last eight games - an appropriate way to perform heading into his first All-Star game this weekend.
The rest of the team isn't doing so badly, either. Atlanta improved to 5-1-1 since Bob Hartley took over as coach, and the Thrashers have been especially potent offensively in the last four games, outscoring their opponents 20-8 during that span.
Atlanta raced to a 3-0 lead in the first period and went on to hand the Rangers their third straight loss.
Pasi Nurminen took a shutout to the third period, but the Rangers broke through on power-play goals by Eric Lindros and Tom Poti.
Heatley opened the scoring at 8:24 of the first period. Tony Hrkac raced into the Rangers, zone and dropped a pass to Heatley, who beat Mike Dunham with a slap shot from the top of the circle.
Heatley scored again at 11:11 of the second, shooting through a screen from just inside the blue line. The Thrashers were on the power play after a silly roughing penalty by Matthew Barnaby, who plowed over Tapper at the side of the net after Dunham smothered a shot.
Tapper scored two goals in a span of 1:35 late in the first period. The first came on a power play, set up by Andy Sutton's shot from the blue line. Dunham made the initial save but couldn't control the rebound, which was flipped into the net by Tapper.
With the teams at even strength, Tapper scored again for the first multigoal game of his NHL career. He knocked Dale Purinton off the puck in the corner and a clearing pass was stopped by Per Svartvadet along the boards. He flipped the puck toward the net and Tapper deflected it in to give the Thrashers a three-goal lead heading to the first intermission.
Pascal Rheaume scored Atlanta's other goal to make it 5-0 in the second. Patrik Stefan doing most of the dirty work, stripping the puck away from Radek Dvorak and taking off on a breakaway. Dunham made the save, but Stefan chased down the rebound and passed to Rheaume in front for an easy tip-in.
NOTES: Lindros scored for the first time in seven games. ... The Rangers have lost four straight games to the Thrashers, each by three goals. ... Attendance is on the rise in Atlanta. The midweek game drew a solid crowd of 12,229. ... The Thrashers moved out of the cellar in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of Buffalo.
Monday
February 10th, 2025
9:38AM
