ATLANTA -- The last thing the Carolina Hurricanes can afford at this point in the season is a losing streak of any length.
The Canes, gamely making a last-gasp push for the playoffs, need every point they can muster and picked up two Sunday with a solid 4-0 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers at Philips Arena.
Manny Legace wasn't overloaded with work but cleaned up whatever came his way in net for the Canes. The old pro, who received a tryout with the Thrashers in preseason training camp, used 27 saves to notch his 24th career shutout and his first this season.
The shutout was the first for Carolina this season after several near-misses where Canes gave up late scores.
"My defense just played phenomenal all game," Legace said. "We didn't really give them much. They played so solid, all six [defensemen] in front of me all game.
Less than 24 hours after a punchless 4-1 road loss to the Florida Panthers that ended a seven-game win streak, Carolina got power-play goals from Brandon Sutter and Jussi Jokinen, and added goals from Joni Pitkanen and Rod Brind'Amour to polish off the Thrashers. The Canes (27-31-7) simply had more jump, more speed and seemingly more determination.
"We've been a good team and worked hard," Maurice said. "You know what, Florida played well last night. But today was a real good bounceback day for us."
Sutter and Pitkanen scored as the Canes led 2-0 after two periods, and Brind'Amour and Jokinen punched in their goals to make it 4-0 early in the third. By then the Thrashers (28-26-10) were doing little more than holding, hooking, high-sticking, slashing and heading to the penalty box.
Scoreless on all seven power plays against Florida, Carolina converted with a man advantage in the first period as Sutter picked up his 17th goal of the season and on Jokinen's 26th in the third.
"It was good to get some confidence on our power play," Jokinen said. "We've struggled a little bit after the [Olympic] break and it was nice to get the two power-play goals. That will help us going forward."
Sutter scored after Atlanta's Evgeny Artyukhin was called for interference on a faceoff with Eric Staal. The goal came at 16:57, with three seconds left on the power play, as Sutter pushed his point streak to six games.
Taking a touch pass from Tuomo Ruutu in front of the goal, he smacked the puck past Thrashers goalie Ondrej Pavelec, who got a piece of the shot with his glove but had the puck trickle past him and over the goal line.
Pitkanen scored his fifth of the season with 4:25 left in the second on a 4-on-4 after the Canes' Patrick Dwyer and Atlanta's Jim Slater were sent off with matching holding penalties. After seemingly skating all over the Atlanta zone, from blue line to behind the net, Pitkanen took a pass from Jokinen in the slot and ripped a shot past Pavelec.
Brind'Amour's goal, his second in three games and seventh this season, came on an odd-man rush into the Atlanta zone by the Canes' new-look fourth line. Tom Kostopoulos and Sergei Samsonov, moved to the line Sunday, had assists - the second of the game for Samsonov.
Jokinen's power-play goal came on some pinpoint passing, with defensemen Brian Pothier and Tim Gleason earning assists.
The Canes controlled the pace of play most of the first period, although both teams looked a little sluggish after games and then travel Saturday night. The Thrashers, beaten 6-2 by the Tampa Bay Lightning, were the more sluggish of the two and managed just four shots in the period.
"I thought we came out and had a real good first period. That for us was the difference," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "Manny made a few saves in the second but I think we did a pretty good job protecting him from that point on."
Carolina did make some crisp breakout passes and built speed through the neutral zone, but the Canes weren't always sharp in the offensive zone even though they had a 15-4 shooting edge.
The Canes return to Raleigh for two days, then head to Washington to face the Capitals. Once again, it will be a game the Hurricanes need to win.
Then again, they can't afford many losses now.
"You're not going to win them all. We lost last night so we came out tonight and played hard," Sutter said. "It seems like the trend is when we get the lead first we hold on to it pretty well. We've just got to keep winning. We're getting closer and closer."
