By Steve Keating
TORONTO (Reuters) - Fredrik Modin and Tobias Enstrom each scored a pair of goals as the red-hot Atlanta Thrashers dumped the slumping Toronto Maple Leafs 6-3 on Monday.
Anthony Stewart and Andrew Ladd also scored as the Thrashers notched their sixth win in nine games to reclaim top spot in the Southeast Division from the Washington Capitals.
All three Toronto goals came on the power play, Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin and John Mitchell, with his first of the season, finding the back of the net.
Another lacklustre effort sends the struggling Maple Leafs into their five-day Christmas break on a three-game losing skid.
Certainly there was no Christmas cheer for the home team as the capacity crowd mercilessly booed the Leafs late in the game and then showered the ice with waffles, in what has become a curious way for Toronto fans to protest the team's poor play.
"You don't want to let that bug you too much but you can hear things and see things," Mitchell told reporters. "You don't want to see that stuff.
"It was kind of a slap in face. Hopefully our fans will think differently, we just have to be better on the ice.
"They (Atlanta) took it to us right from the drop of the puck. That first shift was tough, we couldn't get the puck out of our own end and they were buzzing all over the place."
The Thrashers scored on two of their first three shots, Modin beating Jonas Gustavsson with slap shot and Enstrom adding a power-play tally 28 seconds later.
Toronto recovered from the early lapse, pulling one back in the second when Mitchell pounced on a big rebound and ripped a wrist shot past Ondrej Pavelec before Modin restored Thrashers' two-goal cushion with 56 seconds remaining in the period.
ANGRY FANS
Atlanta put the game away with two quick goals to open the third, Stewart and Enstrom both beating Gustavsson from long range to chase the Swede from the Toronto net in favor of backup James Reimer.
With boos echoing through the Air Canada Center, the Leafs responded with a late rally, Grabovski and Kulemin potting power-play goals 15 seconds apart to slice the Atlanta lead to 5-3.
But Ladd snuffed out any thought of Toronto comeback with an empty netter with 25 seconds left to play.
"We could sense that they were down," said Stewart. "I guess the waffles on the ice woke them up a bit and they got a couple of power-play goals.
"The game plan was to put the puck on Gustavsson and we just had to go to the net and get the rebounds."
(Editing by Steve Ginsburg)
