The Penguins claimed Kris Beech off waivers from Washington late last month because they thought he could help to fill in for some of their injured forwards.

Now, they have to replace the replacement.

Beech will be out indefinitely with a broken right wrist he got late in the Penguins' 4-2 loss Thursday at Carolina. He has been placed on injured reserve, and there is no target date for him to return.

Beech was hurt with a little more than five minutes to play at the RBC Center when Hurricanes defenseman Glen Wesley knocked him into the boards as Beech was preparing to play a puck behind the Carolina goal line.

Wesley received an interference penalty for the hit, which resulted in Beech's right hand absorbing much of the impact when he went into the boards.

In addition to placing Beech on injured reserve, the Penguins recalled forwards Connor James and Chris Minard from their minor-league team in Wilkes-Barre.

Both are up for the second time this season. James played in the Penguins' 3-2 victory Dec. 15 against the New York Islanders on Long Island; Minard made his NHL debut -- and only career appearance at this level -- in a 6-5 shootout loss Jan. 21 to Washington at Mellon Arena.

James has eight goals and 22 assists in 48 games with the Baby Penguins; Minard has 21 goals and 15 assists in 47 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

A few hours before Minard and James were recalled, the Penguins returned rookie defenseman Alex Goligoski to Wilkes-Barre.

He was on the major-league roster for 10 days, but got into only one game, logging eight minutes and 40 seconds of ice time in the 2-1 loss Wednesday to Boston.

Goligoski was the Penguins' second-round draft choice in 2004 and has six goals and 11 assists in 43 games with the Baby Penguins.

He is one of the most highly regarded prospects in the Penguins' organization and, while there wasn't much spectacular about his first stint in the NHL, his debut at this level figures to be an enduring memory.

"It was really cool," Goligoski said. "First NHL game. I don't think I'll ever forget it. But it would have been a lot better if we could have gotten the win."

The Penguins allowed a season-high 46 shots at Carolina.

Shots-on-goal totals can be misleading -- the Hurricanes, for example, made a point of putting the puck on goal at pretty much every opportunity -- and the number of scoring opportunities a team allows is far more significant than how many shots it gives up.

"Shots are deceiving," defenseman Darryl Sydor said. "There could be a lot of shots from the outside. It's the quality scoring chances we try to cut down."

True enough, but the Penguins have been yielding a lot of those lately, too, many on follow-up chances after the initial shot has been stopped.

That being the case, it's significant that the Penguins have held just one of their past five opponents to fewer than 30 shots after limiting the previous four to 28 or fewer.

"You don't want teams to get more than 30 shots," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "If you can keep other teams under 30, you're doing a good job."

Buffalo seemed all but out of playoff contention after suffering through a 1-7-5 stretch in December and January, but it has surged back into the race.

The Sabres, who will take on the Penguins at 6:08 p.m. tomorrow at HSBC Arena, enter their game in New York against the Rangers today on an 8-0-2 run.

"We were counted out by outsiders, not the people in this locker room," Sabres forward Paul Gaustad told the Buffalo News. "We have confidence in this team. We went through a tough stretch, and that builds character. We learned from that and we're not going to take this for granted."

Buffalo's slump included a 2-0 defeat Dec. 29 at Mellon Arena and a 2-1 shootout loss to the Penguins in an outdoor game Jan. 1 at Ralph Wilson Stadium.