Thrashers LW Kovalchuk out with injury

Jan 31, 2008 - 6:06 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- The Atlanta Thrashers are hoping the loss of All-Star Ilya Kovalchuk is only temporary.Kovalchuk suffered a knee injury in the second period ofWednesday's 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins and sat outthe third period.With just 3:21 expired in the second, Kovalchuk was checkedalong the side boards by Pittsburgh's Jarkko Ruutu. The rightknee of the Penguins' left wing collided with the right knee ofKovalchuk, sending the Russian superstar to the ice in pain.After a few moments, Kovalchuk lifted himself up and limped tothe locker room. The former Maurice Richard Trophy winner laterreturned to the bench and was on the ice for a power-playopportunity with less than five minutes to go in the period butwent directly down the runway following the shift."He was in pain," Thrashers coach Don Waddell said. "We'llre-examine him (Thursday) and he'll see the doctors."Atlanta defenseman Steve McCarthy, who returned to the lineupafter missing 10 games with an oblique strain, immediatelyattacked Ruutu after the knee-on-knee collision, earning himselfan instigating minor, fighting major and 10-minute misconduct."I think anybody (would come to Kovalchuk's defense)," saidMcCarthy, whose hand was bloodied in the fracas. "It's one ofyour best players. You can't take it."Ruutu was assessed a major for kneeing and a game misconduct aswell as a fighting major despite only being on the receiving endof punches."I got five minutes for fighting and I didn't even throw apunch," Ruutu said incredulously. "I had my gloves on the wholetime."Despite losing their superstar, the Thrashers refused to cave,scoring two goals early in the third period to open a 4-0 lead."It wasn't good to see him go down," Atlanta goaltender KariLehtonen said. "On the other hand, it was good to see otherguys step up. I think that it was easy for us to let (theinjury) get to us and have the game go the other way. Webattled. That was a good thing."Kovalchuk contributed to the Thrashers' offense in the firstperiod, scoring his 38th goal of the season with 3:18 left. The24-year-old entered Wednesday second in the NHL to Washington'sAlex Ovechkin (39) in goals and tied for fourth in scoring with63 points.With the win, Atlanta climbed within two points of idle Carolina(54) for first place in the Southeast Division. But Waddellknows his team will need big efforts from others shouldKovalchuk miss a significant amount of time."We're going to need other guys to step in, no doubt about it,"the coach said. "We said all year long that you can't rely onone or two guys to score goals. We're going to need 20 skatersor 18 skaters."Eric Perrin was one of the Thrashers who emerged in Kovalchuk'sabsence Wednesday, scoring a shorthanded goal 92 seconds intothe third period."You see a guy like that go down and it makes everybody step upyour game," Perrin said. "When you lose a guy who has 38 goals,it's time for us to take our game to the next level."