Thrashers beat Rangers; Blackhawks edge Coyotes

<br>ATLANTA (AP) _ Patrik Stefan, Chris Herperger and Shawn McEachern each scored two goals Thursday night as the lowly Atlanta Thrashers beat the New York Rangers 7-4. <br><br>Rangers goalie Dan Blackburn,

Friday, November 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) _ Patrik Stefan, Chris Herperger and Shawn McEachern each scored two goals Thursday night as the lowly Atlanta Thrashers beat the New York Rangers 7-4.

Rangers goalie Dan Blackburn, coming off a 3-1 victory Monday night over Carolina, stopped only 18 of 25 shots, but he got little help from his teammates.

``I felt there was no reason to pull Blackburn,'' said Rangers coach Brian Trottier. ``The mistakes that we were making got ourselves out of the game by letting them score goals.''

Dany Heatley had three assists, and goalie Byron Dafoe won his home debut for Atlanta. The Thrashers had lost three straight and five of six. They entered with a league-low 12 points.

``It seems like we underestimated these guys,'' Rangers forward Matthew Barnaby said. ``They're not a great defensive team, but they can pass the puck, shoot the puck and score.''

Petr Nedved, Eric Lindros, Brian Leetch, and Pavel Bure scored for New York.

Bure tied it at 4 only 44 seconds into the third period, scoring just his second goal in 14 games.

Stefan made it 5-4 with 13:50 remaining, beating Blackburn with a hard wrist shot off a pass from Heatley after New York failed to get off a shot on a three-on-one break.

``I think we've been playing like this the last couple of games,'' Stefan said. ``We had so many chances in each game. In Montreal, we could have won that game, too. In Washington, same thing. We had the lead.''

Atlanta scored its first short-handed goal of the season when McEachern stole the puck in the neutral zone and raced down the right side to beat Blackburn at 15:17 of the third.

Dafoe, who lost his Thrashers debut Monday in Montreal, made 22 saves.

``It wasn't pretty on my part, but it's an adjustment time,'' Dafoe said. ``I can't expect to come out and play the way I'm used to playing. I still gave out rebounds tonight, and a couple goals I might have been a little bit out of position.

``The good thing about tonight is the guys showed up and pulled one out for me. Now I owe them one, and I'll pay it back. That's a promise.''

Blackhawks 4, Coyotes 2

In Phoenix, Alex Zhamnov had a goal and an assist Thursday as the Chicago Blackhawks scored four times in the first period to beat the Coyotes 4-2.

Eric Daze also had a goal and an assist, and Sergei Berezin and Nathan Dempsey scored as Chicago snapped a four-game losing streak in the fifth game of its road trip.

Jocelyn Thibault made 34 saves.

Shane Doan scored twice for the Coyotes.