Ondrej Pavelec will start in goal against Nashville on Wednesday night in the Thrashers' fourth exhibition of the preseason. Game time is 7 p.m. at Philips Arena.
Pavelec stopped 32 of 34 shots in the Thrashers’ second exhibition game, a 2-1 overtime loss to Tampa Bay last week.
"We'll make the decision who plays [in goal] after that later," Thrashers coach John Anderson said Tuesday. "Maybe we'll get [Manny] Legace in a game to see him. I don't want to make a decision right now."
Johan Hedberg was in goal for Monday's 4-2 exhibition win over Carolina and stopped 20 of 22 shots.
“You can only practice so much. It’s hard to know where you really stand until you get in a game,” Hedberg said Tuesday. “It was definitely good to play one. ... I’d like to play all of them, but that’s probably not going to happen. I’m happy with the chances I get, and I want to make the most of them.”
The Thrashers have until the end of the week to make a decision on their goaltending. In addition to Hedberg, Pavelec and Legace, the Thrashers also have Drew MacIntyre in camp. Kari Lehtonen is recovering from off-season back surgery.
Injury update
Anderson said that both Ron Hainsey and Colby Armstrong are "day-to-day" after suffering lower body injuries in Monday's game.
“I think if it was during the regular season, I think we might be able to push Hainsey [to play]. Armstrong might be a day or two [away]. It’s nothing serious.”
Top line produces
The Thrashers' top line of Ilya Kovalchuk, Nik Antropov and Bryan Little saw game action for the first time Monday and did not disappoint. Antropov finished with three points. Little scored a third-period goal, the game-winner, on assists from Kovalchuk and Antropov. Kovalchuk passed on a shot to set up Little.
“Antropov is really taking control of that line," Anderson said. "And [Little] said the pass was so good he didn’t have to move his stick."
Antropov also assisted on first-period goals from defensemen Pavel Kubina and Mark Popovic.
“It’s going to take some time to get used to each other,” Antropov said. “Practice and games are totally different. The more you play the more you understand each other.”
It won’t take long according to Kovalchuk.
“It’s really easy to play with a good player,” he said. “When you play with as a player as good as Nik, it’s not going to take us a long time.”
Roster moves coming
Anderson said he would likely make more roster cuts following Wednesday’s exhibition. The Thrashers currently have 37 players on the training-camp roster.
“We’ll have a game plan looking toward Sunday [exhibition finale], having our regular team ready to go,” Anderson said.
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