Blues' Weight out indefinitely with injury

CALGARY, Alberta -- With two of their top players injured, the St. Louis Blues might be stuck in this slump at least for another game.

The Blues, already missing leading goal scorer Keith Tkachuk, lost center Doug Weight to a bruised right knee in Thursday night's 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames. He will be out indefinitely with a ligament sprain and a sprained pelvis, the team said Friday.

Weight, checked heavily into the boards by Flames defenseman Bob Boughner in the second period, was helped off the ice and did not return. He will miss the Blues' game today against the Oilers because of the knee injury, and his condition will be updated upon examination by team doctors.

"It's a major blow to us right now, Dougie's a big part of this team," Blues coach Joel Quenneville said after Thursday's loss. "It didn't look good when he got hit, it didn't look good when he came off the ice."

Jeff Shantz scored his first goal in more than a year, defenseman Petr Buzek got his first in over two years, and Derek Morris also scored in the second period as Calgary built a three-goal lead and then withstood a St. Louis rally.

Jarome Iginla added two assists for the Flames, who stopped a three-game winless skid.

Tyson Nash and Scott Mellanby scored for the Blues, just 3-7-1-0 since a 10-game winning streak.

Shantz's last goal was Feb. 18, 2001, a span of 35 games. He missed the first three months of the season recovering from knee surgery.

"That was an unbelievable goal," Iginla said. "What a move he put on. He just flied in there and put it right under the bar just like we see him do it in practice."

After Saturday's game, St. Louis has four days off before hosting the Wild March 7.

Blues recall Boguniecki

The Blues recalled center Eric Boguniecki from the team's American Hockey League affiliate, the Worcester IceCats.

Boguniecki, 26, leads the AHL with 75 points (34 goals, 41 assists) in 56 contests. He is tied for the lead with 34 goals and is tied for second with 34 assists.

Boguniecki appeared in his third consecutive AHL All-Star team and played for the Planet-USA All-Stars, earning three assists.

Avalanche gain draft pick

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Predators traded defenseman Marc Moro to Toronto for defensemen Marty Wilford and D.J. Smith. Smith was then traded to Colorado for a conditional draft pick in the 2002 draft.

Moro had 75 penalty minutes in 27 games with Nashville in parts of three seasons. This season, he has appeared in 41 games for the Predators' AHL affiliate in Milwaukee, scoring one goal and tallying eight assists.

Wilford has 25 points and 70 penalty minutes in 60 games with the St. John's Maple Leafs of the AHL. He will report to Milwaukee.

Smith scored six goals and had 10 assists in 59 games with St. John's this season.

Penguins face tough path

PITTSBURGH -- The Penguins have been through this before -- long stretches without an injured or incapacitated Mario Lemieux. Yet they still made the playoffs. This time, after hearing Thursday that Lemieux may not play again this season, may be different.

"We had all kinds of adversity through the '90s and were able to be successful," general manager Craig Patrick said. "We're not going to deviate from that."

The Penguins have made the playoffs every season since 1990. Now, however, they are 23-27-6-4 and their talent may well be in decline.

Without Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis, who carried them through those Lemieux-less days before, the Penguins weren't quite prepared for Thursday's news.

As they watched him lead Canada to the Olympic gold medal despite being in obvious pain from his season-long hip injury, the Penguins saw Lemieux doing the same thing for them.

They expected him to return them to the playoffs, where they upset higher-seeded teams the last three years.

-- From staff, wire reports