The decisive goal was scored by Ilya Kovalchuk in a shootout last night to give the Thrashers a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

Ilya Kovalchuk put a shot past the Canadiens rookie Carey Price on the Thrashers’ 3rd attempt, and Atlanta goalie Johan Hedberg forced Kovalev to shoot wide. Each team scored in the 2nd round after neither of them scored in the 1st one. The Canadiens forced overtime after Higgins scored on a power play with only two minutes remaining in regulation.

The Coyotes scored two times in the final 8 minutes to earn a comeback victory at home. Zigomanis tied the score with seven minutes remaining and Sjostrom scored the winner on a wraparound shot with 3 minutes left. After no goals in the first and second period, Brad Boyes scored his 9th goal in ten matches to give the St. Louis Blues a lead.

Evgeni Malkin from the Pittsburgh Penguins had 2 goals and one assist and Sidney Crosby added one goal and 3 assists for visiting Penguins.

Sidney Crosby assisted on a power-play goal by Sykora that broke a 2-2 tie midway through the 3rd period, and then scored less than 5 minutes later.

The Minnesota Wild was without two forwards Demitra and Gaborik and goalie Backstrom because of their injuries.

In other NHL matches, Filppula scored with twenty-five seconds left to give the Red Wings a 2-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers; and Jarome Iginla scored 2 goals to help the Calgary Flames defeat the visiting Nashville Predators, 5-1.

Simon Gagné from the Philadelphia Flyers has not played for the team since he experienced dizziness after colliding with the Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester in last Wednesday’s match.