Atlanta, GA -- Slava Kozlov scored a pair of goals and Pasi Nurminen turned aside 24-of-25 shots to lead the Atlanta Thrashers to a 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres at Philips Arena.

"Pasi made some big saves," Thrashers coach Bob Hartley said. "That's the type of goaltending that's going to get us to the playoffs. That's the good ol' Pasi we saw at the beginning of the season."

Patrik Stefan and J.P. Vigier also scored for the Thrashers, who won for just the second time in 11 games (2-7-1-1). Ilya Kovalchuk contributed a pair of assists in the win.

J.P. Dumont scored the only goal for Buffalo, which is winless in its last six road games (0-5-1). Mika Noronen made 19 saves in the loss.

Dumont gave the Sabres a 1-0 lead just 2:37 into the second period, but Atlanta responded with four unanswered goals.

The Thrashers took advantage of a power play to tie the game at 13:31 of the middle frame. Randy Robitaille and Kovalchuk picked up the assists on Kozlov's 18th goal of the season.

Stefan stole the puck and raced up ice before beating Noronen for an unassisted goal at the 18:00 minute mark of the second period to give Atlanta the lead.

Vigier was trying to make a pass to the front of the net, but the puck hit the skate of Sabres defenseman Jochen Hecht and deflected past Noronen 3:11 into the third period to give Atlanta a 3-1 advantage.

Daniel Tjarnqvist's shot from the left point was stopped by Noronen, but Kozlov lifted the rebound over the fallen netminder to finish the scoring with less than four minutes to play in the third period.

Game Notes:

The Sabres have dropped five in a row at Philips Arena...The Thrashers snapped a three-game home losing streak...Atlanta finished 1-for-8 on the power play, while Buffalo failed on three opportunities with the extra skater.