BLACKHAWKS ADD TO THRASHERS HOME WOES

THE CANADIAN PRESS

ATLANTA - Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews scored power-play goals, and Nikolai Khabibulin made 36 saves to help the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Atlanta Thrashers 3-1 on Wednesday night.

With an NHL-worst 20 points at Philips Arena, the Thrashers lost their fourth straight at home and failed to win for the 16th time its last 20 games in Atlanta.

Coming off a 7-3 loss Saturday night in Vancouver, Chicago increased it road points total to 35 - fourth-best in the NHL.

Dave Bolland added an empty-net goal. Ilya Kovalchuk scored for Atlanta.

Sharp scored his 23rd goal, and eighth on the power play, at 14:06 of the second period, beating Kari Lehtonen with a wrist shot over the glove-side shoulder.

Atlanta tied it on Kovalchuk's slap shot with 1:55 left in the second. The goal, Kovalchuk's 24th, was the 100th of his career on the power play.

Just 21 seconds later, Toews was just outside the crease when Patrick Kane's slapshot from the right circle bounced off Lehtonen. Toews, who also scored the deciding goal in a win Jan. 31 at San Jose, tapped in the puck on the power play.

Kovalchuk had a chance to tie it in the final second of the second. He hit the right goal post on a breakaway before his wrister from the right boards beat Khabibulin, but crossed the goal line two-tenths of a second too late.

Khabibulin improved to 17-5-5. He did not face a shot on goal despite the Thrashers' two-man advantage following Sharp's hooking penalty and Lehtonen's departure to the bench in the final 1:17.

Lehtonen made 25 saves. He's 10-17-2.

Notes: The Blackhawks visited Atlanta for the first time since winning a shootout on Oct. 11, 2005. Chicago is 4-2 at Philips Arena. ... Thrashers D Ron Hainsey, signed as a free agent from Columbus last summer partly because he moved well with the puck, has no goals in his last 32 games and just five this season. The 13th overall draft pick for Montreal in 2000, Hainsey, who began the game minus-15, hasn't missed a game in his first year with Atlanta.