Atlanta Thrashers

Frustration can take many different forms. For the Thrashers on Saturday night, it took the shape of misplaced fisticuffs and bad penalties.

When Evander Kane, Ilya Kovalchuk and Maxim Afinogenov are the ones dropping the gloves, you know you've got serious problems. Beyond that, Atlanta's biggest issue against the pesky Penguins boiled down to a lack of scoring chances, which is what led to the team's high frustration level.

Give Pittsburgh credit for playing a tight-checking, opportunistic game, but you can also blame Atlanta's loss on a lack of discipline. It started in the first period when Zach Bogosian took a bad interference penalty on Evgeni Malkin, leading to Pittsburgh's opening goal.

After the Thrashers fell behind 3-0, things snowballed in the wrong direction for Atlanta. Kane, a rookie who was drafted for his scoring touch, decided to use his hands to fight with Deryk Engelland -- a bad idea. Engelland landed a couple of stiff right hands, and Kane was on his back.

Then, midway through the third period when Matt Cooke bumped Kovalchuk on his way to the bench on a line change, the Thrashers' captain thought it would be a good idea to chase Cooke down the ice and fight him -- another bad idea. While Kovalchuk did surprisingly well in the fight, he was thrown out of the game and given an extra four minutes in penalties, leaving his team shorthanded and without its top scoring threat with 13:18 remaining in the third period.

Atlanta rallied late to pull within one goal, but the damage had been done. Fittingly, the game ended with Afinogenov involved in a mini-fight with Pittsburgh center Jordan Staal. Yet again, it was another bad idea.

PENGUINS 3, THRASHERS 2: Martin Skoula scored twice as the Penguins continued their domination of the Thrashers, posting their sixth straight win over Atlanta. The Thrashers lost their second straight game after a four-game winning streak. Chris Thorburn and Maxim Afinogenov scored for Atlanta, while Johan Hedberg stopped 31 shots in the loss.

• Saturday's 3-2 loss to the Penguins marked the first time since Oct. 10 that Atlanta scored fewer than three goals in a game. Coming into the night, Atlanta ranked second in the NHL, scoring an average of 3.61 goals a game.

• Atlanta went 0-for-3 on the power play in Saturday's loss to the Penguins. In their past two games, the Thrashers have scored just one goal on 10 power-play opportunities.

• For the first time this season, Atlanta found itself involved in a penalty shot. When Johan Hedberg stopped Maxim Talbot in the second period of Saturday's loss, it marked the first time Atlanta had faced a penalty shot since Oct. 8, 2008 when Kari Lehtonen stopped Philadelphia's Mike Richards.

Quote To Note:

"We talk about thinking we can play with teams like Pittsburgh and Washington. I don't think we fully believe it yet. We played very tentatively at the start."

—Thrashers coach John Anderson on Atlanta's six-game losing streak against Pittsburgh.

Goaltenders:

Ondrej Pavelec, Johan Hedberg.

Defensemen:

Tobias Enstrom, Christoph Schubert, Mark Popovic, Zach Bogosian, Pavel Kubina, Ron Hainsey.

First Line:

Ilya Kovalchuk, Nik Antropov, Maxim Afinogenov.

Second Line:

Evander Kane, Rich Peverley, Colby Armstrong.

Third Line:

Slava Kozlov, Todd White, Bryan Little.

Fourth Line:

Eric Boulton, Marty Reasoner, Chris Thorburn.

Player Notes:

• D Zach Bogosian had a team-high five hits and added two blocked shots in Saturday's loss to Pittsburgh. This season, Bogosian leads Atlanta with 46 hits and 35 blocked shots.

• RW Maxim Afinogenov scored his sixth goal in the past five games with 18 seconds remaining in the third period of Saturday's loss to Pittsburgh. It's the second straight game Afinogenov has scored in the game's final minute. Afinogenov has six goals and three assists over the past five games and 20 points in 19 games overall.

• RW Chris Thorburn, a rugged fourth liner not known for his scoring touch, netted his second goal of the season in Saturday's loss to Pittsburgh off a 2-on-1 feed from Zach Bogosian. Both of Thorburn's goals this season have come shorthanded.

Medical Watch:

• G Kari Lehtonen underwent his second back surgery in the past four months on Oct. 30 and is expected to be out through the end of December.