Boston, MA (Best E Casino) - Milan Lucic scored his third goal of the game with 1:41 left in the contest for his first career hat trick to lift the Boston Bruins to a 5-4 win over the Atlanta Thrashers at TD Bank north Garden.

Lucic also had an assist while David Krejci and Stephane Yelle also lit the lamp for the Bruins, who stopped a three-game slide. Manny Fernandez made 28 saves in the win.

"I think the adjustment had to come from the players," said Boston coach Claude Julien. "I think anyone who watched the game saw a difference in the effort between the first and second periods."

Ilya Kovalchuk, Slava Kozlov and Mathieu Schneider each had a goal and an assist for the Thrashers, who have lost three straight. Johan Hedberg made 28 stops in the loss.

"We're up 2-0 and they kept coming at us," said Hedberg. "We got a couple of penalties and took it to us. Margin of error is pretty small sometimes and unfortunately that had the bounces on their side tonight."

The format of the game was changed because of incorrect faceoff markings at one end of TD Bank north Garden.

In the third period, the teams switched ends following the first stoppage in play after the 10-minute mark.

The Bruins issued a statement about 40 minutes before the game that said "the change in format is occurring due to incorrect markings on the West End of the TD Bank north Garden ice. The two face-off dots are 24 feet from the goal line - four feet longer than NHL specifications."

The current sheet of ice was installed on September 9, 2008, and the error was not noticed until this morning. The team said the problem will be rectified before the next home game on November 1 against Dallas.

The Thrashers scored twice in the first 20 minutes to take a 2-0 lead.

On the power play, Erik Christensen's initial shot from the slot was stopped, but it bounced around and, from the left side, Jason Williams swept it into the net with 4:57 left in the stanza.

Late in the period with Atlanta on the man advantage, Boston turned the puck over in its zone. Kovalchuk found himself with the puck along the right boards and fed to Schneider, who was cutting into the zone and buried a wrister in the back of the net with 10.4 seconds left on clock.

Boston scored twice in the first six minutes of the second period to tie the game.

Shawn Thornton blasted a shot from the right point that was tipped in by Yelle in front at the 3:37 mark.

About two minutes later, Marc Savard one-handed the puck from behind the net to Michael Ryder, who then centered the puck to Lucic for a wrister past Hedberg.

Atlanta answered on the power play again as Schneider blasted a shot from the right point that hit off a Bruin in front, popped into the air to the left side and Kovalchuk fired it into the net on the bounce with 9:56 left in the second for a 3-2 lead.

However, the Bruins got a power-play goal of their own to tie the game as Krejci slapped a shot from the slot into the left corner of the net with 5:38 left in the second.

Boston took the lead with a power-play goal at the 5:08 mark of the third as Dennis Wideman slapped a shot from the left point that Lucic tipped into the net.

The Thrashers, though, tied the game a little over two minutes later as Colby Armstrong, just getting to his feet after a big hit, picked up a loose puck at the deep right boards and centered it to Kozlov, who jammed it home for his third goal of the season.

Game Notes

Boston starts a three-game road trip in Edmonton on Monday...Atlanta hosts Philadelphia on Tuesday...The Bruins have won three straight against Atlanta...Atlanta went 3-for-4 on the power play while Boston finished the game 2-for-5 with the man advantage.