Petrovicky's goals power Thrashers

ATLANTA — Ronald Petrovicky scored twice and Byron Dafoe made 25 saves to help the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 Sunday night.

Ilya Kovalchuk added his NHL-leading 21st goal and Slava Kozlov also scored for the Thrashers, who won their second straight after a three-game losing streak, during which they were shut out in each. They increased their lead in the Southeast Division to five points over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

John LeClair had a power-play goal for the Flyers, who fell behind 1-0 for the 13th straight game when Petrovicky scored only 1:29 after the faceoff. Philadelphia has won just once in seven games (1-2-2-2), but stayed tied with Toronto for the points lead in the NHL.

During the losing streak, Atlanta went 182 minutes, 32 seconds without a goal, but Petrovicky broke that drought eight seconds into Saturday's victory over Pittsburgh. He got the Thrashers off to another fast start — although not quite so quickly — by stealing a pass from goaltender Jeff Hackett.

Hackett wandered behind the net to play the puck, then tried to get it to defenseman Jim Vandermeer. But the pass was weak, and Petrovicky skated in and snared it, then easily put the puck in the open net for a 1-0 lead.

The Flyers, with the best power play in the league, tied it during the man advantage early in the second period. Tony Amonte passed from the blue line to Michal Handzus in the corner, who then fed LeClair right in front.

He stuffed the puck passed Dafoe to make it 1-1.

Petrovicky scored the go-ahead goal after a brilliant pass from Ilya Kovalchuk midway through the second period. Kovalchuk fought his way past defenseman Kim Johnsson and chased down the puck in the corner, then patiently waited for Petrovicky to skate toward the crease.

The pass went cleanly to Petrovicky, who beat Hackett for a 2-1 lead.

Kozlov made it a two-goal lead during a power play about 3 1/2 minutes later, skating with the puck from his own zone and using a screen by Marc Savard to slip a shot through Hackett's legs.

ISLANDERS 5, CAPITALS 4: At Washington, Alexei Yashin snapped a tie early in the third period and the New York Islanders beat the Capitals for their first victory in Washington since 1997. The Islanders, who broke a two-game losing streak and a six-game road skid, had not won a road game against the Capitals since beating them 2-0 on April 12, 1997, at the team's former arena. Yashin scooped up Mariusz Czerkawski's pass in the neutral zone, skated across the blue line and surprised Washington goaltender Olaf Kolzig with a low wrist shot at 1:09 for his 12th goal.