Hurricanes win Southeast Division battle over Thrashers

The Carolina Hurricanes stopped Ilya Kovalchuk for a change.

Two days after Kovalchuk had 4 points in an overtime win at Carolina, the Atlanta star was held without a goal as the Hurricanes padded their Southeast Division lead by beating the Thrashers 4-3 on Friday night.

Cory Stillman's goal with a two-man advantage gave Carolina its first lead with 3:23 left. The decisive score came with 9 seconds remaining on the two-man advantage.

The Thrashers fell to 4-13 when Kovalchuk, the NHL leader with 33 goals, is held without a goal. Atlanta (20-21-1) hoped to pull within a point of first-place Carolina but instead fell below .500.

Eric Staal, Ray Whitney and Casey Borer also scored for Carolina, which ended a three-game losing streak.