explain his dominance of the Buffalo Sabres, but he can dissect his team's hot
start to the season.
"Last year we started out awfully, and we were out of it
at Christmas time," said Hedberg, who made 40 saves and added an assist in his
first start of the season to help send the Thrashers (4-1-0) to their best start
in franchise history with a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.
"We learned from that, and we're trying to get as many
points as we can early on here because we want to stay in this race."
That won't be hard to do if Atlanta continues getting
production from star forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who scored twice to increase his
total to seven, and stellar goaltending from both Hedberg and Ondrej Pavelec.
"I always expect to win," Thrashers coach John Anderson
said. "I want to convey that to every guy on our team."
Hedberg continued his mastery of the Sabres by improving
to 11-2-1 lifetime against Buffalo, and helped hand the Sabres (4-1-1) their
first regulation loss of the season.
Todd White and former Sabre Maxim Afinogenov also scored
for the Thrashers, whose four wins are the most after five games since the
team's inception in 1999.
"We have a good team," said Afinogenov, who signed with
Atlanta after nine seasons with the Sabres. "Our goalies are playing
unbelievable for us and that helps make our leads safe."
The Thrashers got 12 of the game's first 13 shots in the
opening 10 minutes, and jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead.
But after that sluggish start, Buffalo outshot the
Thrashers 41-15 in the final 50 minutes – including a 20-4 advantage in the
third period – but were thwarted continuously by the spectacular play of
Hedberg.
"It was hard always coming back," said Buffalo forward
Drew Stafford, who cut the Atlanta lead to 3-2 with 3:34 left in regulation only
to watch Afinogenov clinch the game 17 seconds later with a splendid individual
effort that was started by Hedberg. "We'd make a charge but then we'd let them
get one right away."
Clarke MacArthur also scored for the Sabres. Buffalo
entered the game as the lone team in the NHL yet to be defeated in regulation.
Patrick Lalime made his first start of the season, and
finished with 23 saves in the loss.
"You can't start a game like that," Sabres coach Lindy
Ruff said. "If you start a game like that you're asking for a loss. We didn't
deserve to win."
Buffalo was again without high-scoring left wing Thomas
Vanek, who missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury.
Kovalchuk opened the scoring on the power play nearly 7
minutes into the game with a wrister from the high slot that went into the
top-right corner.
Kovalchuk tallied again for his second of the night 3
minutes later when he one-timed a shot from the slot after receiving a pass from
Bryan Little.
"If you're going to hand their best player those types
of opportunities, you're going to fail," Ruff said.
MacArthur cut the lead in half with his team-leading
fourth goal of the season 6:56 into the second period, sending a slap shot from
the outer edge of the left circle that handcuffed Hedberg.
Atlanta regained its two-goal edge 57 seconds later when
White scored the Thrashers' second power-play goal of the game.
"We're happy to take this one," Hedberg said. "We have a
lot of good pieces, now we have to keep working. It's the start we wanted."
Notes
Entering the game, the Thrashers had played the
fewest games (four) in the league. … Sabres C Adam Mair played in his first
game of the season after having hip surgery. He replaced C Matt Ellis, who is
out with a quad contusion. … Three former Sabres – Chris Thorburn, Eric
Boulton and Afinogenov – skated for the Thrashers. … Atlanta has won the past
five meetings with Buffalo.