Kovalchuk suffers injury but Thrashers drop Pens

ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Thrashers had to wait to find out how costly their slump-ending victory over Pittsburgh would prove to be.

The Thrashers lost star Ilya Kovalchuk to a knee injury while ending a five-game losing streak in Wednesday night’s 4-1 victory over the Penguins. How badly hurt Atlanta’s leading scorer was couldn’t immediately be determined.

In his first game since Sunday’s All-Star game, also at Philips Arena, Kovalchuk scored his 38th goal but was injured in a knee-on-knee hit from Pittsburgh’s Jarkko Ruutu in the second period.

Kovalchuk made a brief return later in the frame for one shift. He missed the third period and will be examined by team doctors today.

“You can’t keep him off the ice,” Thrashers general manager and coach Don Waddell said. “He was determined to come out and at least test it.

“These kind of injuries, you always wait until the next day and see how the swelling is and just see how he reacts from it.”

Kovalchuk was leveled by Ruutu 3:21 into the second period. The collision left Kovalchuk laying on the ice in obvious pain in front of Atlanta’s bench before he limped to the locker room.

Atlanta’s Steve McCarthy immediately followed the collision by crashing into Ruutu and then punching the left winger while having him pinned against the boards in front of the Thrashers bench.

McCarthy earned a minor penalty for instigating, a major for fighting and a misconduct. Ruutu drew a pair of majors for kneeing and fighting, and was ejected.

Ruutu defended the hit as an intended routine check.

“I meant to finish my check,” Ruutu said. “He ducked away and I barely hit him. I didn’t change direction. I just went for a hit.

“I got five minutes for fighting and I didn’t even throw a punch. I had my gloves on the whole time.”

McCarthy said Ruutu was “a good teammate” when the two played together in Vancouver, but he said Ruutu had to answer for the hit on Kovalchuk’s knee.

“When he takes a liberty like that, it’s unacceptable,” McCarthy said. “He plays his game well, but when he takes advantage of one of our best players, that’s unacceptable.”

When asked if he was concerned about a possible suspension, Ruutu said “There’s no reason to be suspended for that hit.”