Thrashers 6, Panthers 3

Thrashers 6, Panthers 3
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- Shawn McEachern had two goals, and Ilya Kovalchuk scored his NHL-leading 15th to lead the Atlanta Thrashers to their third straight victory, 6-3 over the Florida Panthers on Friday night.
The Thrashers scored twice on the power play, and twice while skating short-handed in the second period.
McEachern, with only three goals this season, scored to give Atlanta leads of 1-0 and 5-3. Kovalchuk added two assists and has 27 points this season. J.P. Vigier and Andy Sutton had the short-handed goals.
Florida is 2-4 since general manager took over as coach, and lost twice to Atlanta in less than a week.
Vigier put Atlanta ahead 3-2 with less than five minutes left in the second, and Sutton scored with four seconds remaining in the period to make it 4-3.
Valeri Bure got Florida even at 2 when he scored 8:25 into the second.
Vigier's goal was set up when Bure lost the puck and his stick near the red line. Vigier picked up the loose puck, moved in on Roberto Luongo and scored on a wrist shot at 15:12.
The Panthers answered 36 seconds later. Stephen Weiss moved in from the right side and sent the puck toward the net, but defenseman Ivan Majesky, attempting to clear the puck, inadvertently flicked it into his own net.
Vigier then contributed to Atlanta's go-ahead goal. Luongo stopped Vigier's shot from the right circle, but Sutton put in the rebound.
McEachern gave the Thrashers a 5-3 lead with a power-play goal at 8:55 of the third, and Ronald Petrovicky added an empty-net goal.
McEachern put the Thrashers up 1-0, firing a wrist shot past Luongo. Florida tied it when Olli Jokinen's centering pass hit the skate of goalie Pasi Nurminen and went in.
Notes: Kovalchuk has 16 points in 12 games. ... McEachern has 16 goals and 30 points in 37 career games against the Panthers. ... The Panthers had not allowed a short-handed goal this season. ... Bure is on a four-game point streak and has five goals and 11 points in eight games. ... Jiggs McDonald, who does radio play-by-play for Florida, broadcast his 3,000th game. ... Panthers LW Eric Messier injured his wrist in the first period and didn't return.