Tarnstrom out indefinitely

Tarnstrom, whose skate stuck in the ice as he was hit from the side in the first period of the Penguins' 7-5 win, has a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee, the team announced yesterday. He has been placed on injured reserve and is listed as being out indefinitely. In his nine-plus games, Tarnstrom had three goals (two of them on the power play) and four points, with a plus-minus rating of minus-4. Coach Eddie Olczyk said Tarnstrom had two of his better games in the 4-3 overtime loss Tuesday against Florida and against Atlanta. "He had three unbelievable shifts" against the Thrashers, Olczyk said. The team made no immediate move to replace Tarnstrom on the roster. Keeping win in perspective With victory likely at last, most of the crowd of 14,009 stayed until the end Thursday. The fans counted down the final few seconds, then set off a roar to mark the end of the Penguins' nine-game winless streak to start the season. A half-hour later, exiting fans were still whooping and honking.

By the time rookie Sidney Crosby left, the area around Mellon Arena was fairly quiet, but he got a feel for the excitement. "I could tell by when the buzzer rang at the end of the game," he said. "It was really loud. Everyone was excited. We were, too." But Crosby's excitement was tempered some. "You're satisfied," he said. "It's what you expect. I don't think it's overjoy. It's expected when you come out of the rink. That's the way it needs to be. "I don't think I was up on cloud nine or anything. It was a good win. We don't want to take anything away from that, but we have a lot of games left." Defenseman Sergei Gonchar seconded that emotion.

"It's only one win," he said. "It's not like it's a Game 7."

29. 10. 2005, Will