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Thrashers lose to Bruins for second time in 2 days
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BOSTON — Phil Kessel had a goal and an assist to extend his points streak to 15 games — the best in the NHL this season — and Michael Ryder scored two goals Saturday night to lead the Boston Bruins to a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers.

It was the 11th consecutive home victory for the Bruins, their longest streak in 26 years. Manny Fernandez stopped 20 shots to win his eighth straight and improve to 6-0 with a 1.67 goals-against lifetime against Atlanta.

Dennis Wideman also scored for Boston, which has won 16 of its last 19 overall to move to the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

One night after Boston won 7-3 in Atlanta, thanks in part to a goal and two assists from Kessel, the Bruins completed the home-and-home sweep and sent the Thrashers to their 11th loss in 13 games.
Nathan Oystrick and Marty Reasoner scored for Atlanta, and Johan Hedberg made 25 saves.

The Bruins took the lead on a power play 6 minutes into the game when Kessel got a crossing pass to the right of the goalie and put a wrist shot off Hedberg’s pads. The rebound bounced right back to Kessel, whose second shot found the net.

Blake Wheeler brought the puck over the blue line and dropped it for Ryder, who shifted it over to his backhand and slid it past Hedberg to make it 2-0 with 6:17 left in the first. Oystrick cut it to 2-1 with 38 seconds left in the period when he took an errant pass from Todd White and slapped it in from the point.

Kessel was in the middle of it again in the second, when he got into a stick fight with Boris Valabik behind the net and big Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara came to his teammate’s defense. Chara picked up 17 minutes in penalties, but that didn’t stop Wideman from giving the Bruins a 3-1 lead with their second power-play goal of the game with 1:44 left in the second.

Ryder fought his way through traffic to make it 4-1 with 4:12 left in the game. But Atlanta made it 4-2 when Reasoner’s wrist shot from the point caromed in off the left post with 2:20 to play.

Ryder missed a hat trick when his blooper into the empty net at the buzzer was ruled too late.

Notes: The Bruins recalled F Martins Karsums from Providence of the AHL on an emergency basis and placed F Marco Sturm on long term injured reserve, retroactive to Nov. 17. ... The Bruins wore their special event black jerseys for the game. ... It’s the eighth time this season the Bruins have scored two or more power-play goals. ... Bruins F Patrice Bergeron missed the game with the flu and Aaron Ward was out with an ankle injury.

Community Events
Thrashers headed to Canada after team's sale
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WINNIPEG, Manitoba — The wait is over for Winnipeg hockey fans.

For Atlanta, it means saying goodbye to another NHL team.

True North Sports and Entertainment scheduled a news conference Tuesday at Winnipeg's MTS Centre to make "a significant community announcement."

True North has been in negotiations with the owners of the Atlanta Thrashers to buy the NHL team and move it to Winnipeg. The deal is reportedly worth $170 million, which includes a $60 million relocation fee that would be split by the rest of the league.

Winnipeg has been without NHL hockey since the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996. The Thrashers entered the league three years later as an expansion franchise, but ownership problems, a losing team and dwindling attendance doomed the club. The team ranked 28th out of 30 teams this year with an average attendance of less than 14,000.

Assuming the deal goes through - it still must be approved by the other owners - Atlanta would become the first city in the NHL's modern era to lose two teams.
The Flames moved to Calgary in 1980 after eight seasons in Atlanta.

True North was making its announcement one day before the start of the Stanley Cup final, which begins Wednesday in Vancouver between the Canucks and the Boston Bruins.
While there was no prohibition on announcing major news during that series, the league preferred to get the Thrashers' sale off its plate before opening its signature event.

For weeks, the two sides had been working through complex legal details on the sale and relocation of the team, while leaving open the possibility that a local buyer would emerge late in the process. No one ever came forward with a serious offer, according to the Thrashers' ownership group, Atlanta Spirit, and the city's mayor, Kasim Reed.

"It is going to hurt the city but we will withstand it just fine and we will get through it," Reed said.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said on his weekly radio show that the inability to find an owner who wanted to keep the team in Atlanta was a barrier the league couldn't overcome.

"It would be one of those head scratchers where you say, 'Look at all of this great corporate opportunity, look at all of this grass roots hockey, why doesn't somebody want to own a team here?'" Bettman said. "And that would be a difficult, but unfortunate, situation to be dealing with if it has reached, or does reach, that point."

Bettman was asked if Atlanta had hopes of landing another NHL team if it lost its second franchise.

"The prospect of leaving Atlanta isn't something that I'm particularly fond of," he said. "So I can't even contemplate the notion of what would happen after that in terms of coming back. We respect the importance of Atlanta as a city. It's a big market, but this is a franchise that's got a problem in that market."

Team president Don Waddell says there remains some hope for a late development until a sale is made official and approved by the NHL board of governors, which is scheduled to meet June 21 in New York. But considering Atlanta Spirit, which also owns the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the operating rights to Philips Arena, has been trying for years to sell the hockey team, that seems highly unlikely.

Also, any potential owner would have to agree to become a tenant at Philips Arena, a major stumbling block because it would cut into potential revenue from sources such as concessions, parking, luxury suites and other events.

"Ownership still is committed to selling at a greatly reduced price to anyone committed to Atlanta," Waddell said.