Leafs blow big lead - again - in loss to Thrashers

ATLANTA - This act was separated by 500 kilometres and 24 hours, but it had a different ending for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

A night after escaping with a 6-4 victory in Carolina - recovering at the last moment after blowing a 4-0 lead - the Leafs coughed up a 3-0 first-period advantage at Philips Arena and were edged 4-3 by the Atlanta Thrashers in overtime.

Ilya Kovalchuk made the play on the winning goal, firing a 40-foot slapshot at Vesa Toskala that the Toronto netminder could not control, allowing forward Rich Peverley to put it home. Defencemen Ian White and Luke Schenn got their signals crossed and Peverley swiped a fat rebound into the vacated goal.

It was a tough result for the Leafs, who had every opportunity to come home with a perfect swing through the chilly Southern U.S.

"We're not a good team," snapped coach Ron Wilson, when asked if his players felt the night would be too easy after leading 3-0 edge in the first period. "We talked about it (during the intermission). We hadn't done anything special in the first period, and we took our foot off the gas like we did (on Thursday).

"We have to be focused every single second. We opened the door for them tonight and couldn't screw down the cap once we let it out."

As is his custom, Kovalchuk was the best player on the ice, scoring twice including the game-tying goal with 4:52 left in regulation.

That goal occurred seconds after Matt Stajan missed a golden opportunity to provide the Leafs some insurance. He had Kari Lehtonen at his mercy, but could not beat the Atlanta goalie.

"Yeah, I probably should have brought it to my backhand but it's a bang-bang play and he got across to make a good save," said Stajan.

The Thrashers were as cold as the local climate in the first period. The Arctic air mass that plunged Toronto into a deep freeze this week has made its way south.

In their last visit here, the Leafs opened an early 2-0 lead en route to an easy 6-2 triumph. Friday night, they went one better and erupted for three unanswered goals in the latter half of the initial period.

This was facilitated by a noticeable improvement from Toskala in the past week - an ability to make key saves early in games. His struggle in the opening minutes has contributed largely to the Leafs yielding the first goal on 30 occasions so far this season.

But Toskala came up huge in this match. He stopped Atlanta's first shot - a prime scoring chance by Kovalchuk on a 2-on-1 break after Schenn had turned over the puck near centre ice. Seconds later, Toskala again robbed Kovalchuk on a set-up from behind the goal. He was also sharp on a rebound near the crease that Colby Armstrong tried to convert.

The quick sequence of saves allowed the Leafs to assume temporary control later in the period. Lee Stempniak, Dominic Moore and Niklas Hagman gave Toronto a 3-0 edge heading to the intermission.

Toronto's late explosion prompted an angry crowd to boo the Thrashers off the ice, and it spelled the end for starting netminder Johan Hedberg, who was replaced by Lehtonen to begin the middle frame.

The change had an immediate effect, as Lehtonen made a difficult stop on a backhand attempt by Mikhail Grabovski 55 seconds into the period. Fifteen seconds later, Kovalchuk finally solved Toskala, scoring his 17th goal of the season on a low shot from the left-wing circle.

Atlanta pulled to within one of the Leafs late in the second period when Bryan Little executed a nifty spin-around move past Tomas Kaberle and beat Toskala with a low backhand shot for his team-leading 20th goal.