Kovalchuk’s shootout goal lifts Thrashers

Ilya Kovalchuk scored the winner in a shootout to give visiting Atlanta a win over Toronto despite giving up the tying goal in the closing seconds of regulation last night.

Kovalchuk, Tobias Enstrom, with his first NHL goal, Eric Perrin and Todd White scored in regulation for the Thrashers (2-7), who are 2-1 since general manager Don Waddell took over as coach after firing Bob Hartley.

Mats Sundin, Hal Gill, Nik Antropov and Alex Ponikarovsky scored for Toronto (3-4-3).

Marc-Andre Fleury turned aside 36 shots in another strong start, and Pittsburgh won its third in a row by handing visiting New York its second successive loss.

It marked the first time in the long history of the Original Six franchise that the Rangers absorbed back-to-back 1-0 defeats, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

Evgeni Malkin scored the only goal on a power play early in the second period to ruin a good night by Henrik Lundqvist, who made a succession of excellent saves while stopping 21 shots. The biggest save came on Jordan Staal’s penalty shot less than a minute after Malkin scored.

Rick Nash had two goals and an assist, and Jiri Novotny scored twice to lift visiting Columbus over Chicago.

Sergei Fedorov, Nikolai Zherdev and Ole-Kristian Tollefsen also scored for the Blue Jackets, who earned their fourth victory of the season but first not by shutout. Nash extended his goal streak to four games. He has five goals and three assists in that span.

Paul Kariya had a goal and three assists, and Brad Boyes scored twice as host St. Louis kept Anaheim winless on the road.

Kariya, a key free agent acquisition, has nine assists and 11 points for the Blues in his first seven games with St. Louis. Boyes has six goals and two assists.

Keith Tkachuk also had a goal and two assists for the Blues, who got 14 saves from Manny Legace. He improved to 9-1-1 against Anaheim and hasn’t lost to the Ducks since Nov. 16, 1998