PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins' first win of the season came at a price: the indefinite loss of defenseman Dick Tarnstrom with a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee.

Tarnstrom, one of the Penguins' top defensemen, was placed on the injured reserve list Friday, and his loss creates a void for a team that is struggling to shut down opponents. The Penguins have allowed 47 goals, easily the most in the league, through Thursday's play.

Tarnstrom was injured in the first period of a 7-5 victory over Atlanta on Thursday when his skate stuck in the ice while he was being hit from the side.

The injury forced the Penguins to play the rest of the game with five defensemen, though their 11 power-play opportunities helped reduce the work load for them. Tarnstrom, who won a $1.6 million salary in arbitration last summer, has a goal and three assists and is a minus-3 through 10 games.

Now that the Penguins finally have won — they were 0-4-5, the longest season-opening stretch without a victory in team history — they would like to make it two in a row when they play Carolina Saturday before starting a difficult 10-day road trip. They play at the Devils, Islanders, Bruins, Rangers and Thrashers on an extended trip that starts Tuesday.

The Penguins (1-4-5) will have the advantage of being rested Saturday, while the Hurricanes (7-2-1) will be playing their second game in as many nights. They beat the Flyers 8-6 Friday in Raleigh.

Thursday's victory also was the first for Penguins rookie star Sidney Crosby after a three-week wait. But with 72 games remaining, he wasn't ready to do much celebrating.

"We have a lot of games left, and we don't want to look too much into it," Crosby said.

Pittsburgh overcame a 4-0 deficit less than 10 minutes into the game by scoring seven consecutive goals, including a club record-tying six on the power play. Mario Lemieux, Sergei Gonchar and John LeClair each scored twice on the power play.

"I'm extremely happy for the guys," coach Eddie Olczyk said. "They showed a lot of moxie and a lot of courage and I couldn't be more proud of them. There have been games we've been down before, and that's a credit to them (to come back). I couldn't be any happier for them."

Two nights before, the Penguins were 2-for-12 on the power play in losing to the Florida Panthers 4-3 in overtime.

"Maybe we just didn't shoot enough in previous games on the power play," Gonchar said. "But with a guy like John LeClair in front of the net, he's a great guy to have there when you shoot, so we have to use him."

The comeback win also marked the first time the 40-year-old Lemieux skated on a line with the 18-year-old Crosby — though with 18 power-play opportunities by both teams, 5-on-5 ice time was sparse.

Even after earning a victory, Crosby said the Penguins expected more of themselves than one win in 10 tries.

"I don't think we're overjoyed," Crosby said. "Wins are expected, and that's the way it needs to be. I don't think we're up on Cloud Nine. It's a great win and we will not take anything away from it, but we have a lot of games left and we have to take the good things from this game and carry them on."