Thrashers top quiet Hawks

Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are potential stars for the Blackhawks, but neither is Ilya Kovalchuk yet.

Kovalchuk was the difference for the Atlanta Thrashers Saturday night, scoring once and assisting twice in a 3-2 win over the punchless Hawks before a healthy crowd of 15,789 at the United Center.

The Hawks have lost three straight to drop to 5-6 and have taken on the look of being every bit the mediocre team coach Denis Savard said this week he wouldn't accept.

"We've got to stay with it," Savard said. "It's frustrating in a sense, but at the same time we can't get frustrated. We've got to stick with the program here, go into Dallas (Wednesday) and play a solid game, and go from there."

The Hawks got goals from Patrick Kane and Jason Williams, but Williams' came on a power play with 1:09 left and goalie Patrick Lalime pulled for a sixth attacker.

The Hawks had 31 shots on goal and another 19 blocked by the Thrashers, but again too many attempts came from low percentage scoring areas.

"We've got to get more pucks to the net," Williams said. "You see the good teams and every time they get an opportunity they're getting pucks to the net with traffic.

"We're going through a little adversity. But we've got to stick with the game plan and make sure we battle a little harder."

The kids -- Kane and Toews -- continue to be most of the offense. The Hawks have scored 7 goals in their three-game losing streak, 3 by Kane and 2 by Toews.

"I thought we took it to the net pretty hard tonight," Kane said. "We've just got to finish our chances."

The Hawks were 2-for-8 on the power play, which was a bright spot, but the Thrashers were 2-for-5.

The Hawks struggled on the power play in the first period before finally breaking through early in the second.

And it was Kane connecting on a shot from the low right circle that beat goalie Johan Hedberg for his fourth goal of the season.

Penalty problems cost the Hawks in the first period. Twice they gave Atlanta lengthy two-man advantages and paid for it with Slava Kozlov getting a tip-in goal off a Kovalchuk slap shot at 10:06 for a 1-0 lead.

Kovalchuk put the Thrashers ahead 2-1 at 3:51 of the third period, pulling away from defenseman Brent Seabrook to beat Lalime on a breakaway.

Kovalchuk got the puck after a drop pass by Tuomo Ruutu inside the Atlanta blue line was intercepted and started the other way by Darren Haydar.

The Thrashers made it 3-1 at 7:53 on Kozlov's second power-play goal.

A clearing attempt by Martin Lapointe failed with Kovalchuk intercepting the puck inside the Hawks' blue line and feeding Kozlov all alone in front.

"I thought we got into a little bit of a lull in the third period and they happened to get a couple goals," Williams said.

The Hawks were supposed to have today off, but Savard called for a morning practice at the United Center.

"It's not punishment," claimed Savard. "We still need to work on some little things here and there."