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Tuesday, September 17, 2002

By Dejan Kovacevic, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Center Alexandre Daigle, attending the Penguins' training camp on a tryout contract, isn't wasting any time impressing upon management that he should make the team.

He scored two goals off a game-high seven shots in the White Team's 3-3 tie with the Yellow Team on the second day of the camp's intrasquad tournament. He scored on a rising slap shot from the right circle, then from in tight off a one-timed feed from left winger Matt Murley. He clanged another shot off the post.

It was the first game for Daigle's White team.

"He's got great speed," General Manager Craig Patrick said afterward. "He got a couple of goals, so that's good. He makes things happen. I'm anxious to see more of him."

Daigle, who has been out of hockey since playing for the New York Rangers in the 1999-2000 season, was the first overall pick in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft.

The other White goal was by defenseman Alexandre Rouleau. Yellow's goals came from center Randy Robitaille, left winger Konstantin Koltsov and center Shane Endicott, who tied the score with 1:11 remaining. Yellow won the shootout that followed, 7-4.

The game's other standout was defenseman Brooks Orpik, the Penguins' top draft pick in 2000 who is making a serious bid for a roster spot. For the second consecutive day, Orpik was the most physical player by far, routinely slamming opponents with his 6-foot-3, 217-pound frame. The primary victim yesterday was center Maxime Talbot, who was hit so hard by Orpik his stick was knocked out of his hands.

"He takes the body really hard all the time," Patrick said. "He also moves the puck well and plays well defensively."

Tip-ins

As he did Sunday, center Mario Lemieux participated in half of the morning practice with his group. ... Patrick said there remains no news on the team's pending new offer of a contract extension to right winger Alexei Kovalev. "Not yet," he said. ... Left winger Alexander Zevakhin, whose right shoulder was injured by a hard check Sunday, was to have a magnetic resonance imaging test yesterday to determine its severity. He stayed off the ice with the shoulder in a sling yesterday. ... Center Kent Manderville was the only other player to sit out yesterday, because of a sore groin. ... Because of those absences, right winger Aleksey Morozov -- one of six veterans who had been held out of the camp tournament -- will play today. ... Right winger Alexander Selivanov, the other prominent tryout candidate besides Daigle, is without a goal despite taking a tournament-high 11 shots in two games. He had a goal waved off yesterday when a referee lost sight of the puck and blew the whistle. ... Goaltender Johan Hedberg was sharp again yesterday and has allowed only two goals on 49 shots in his two games. ... A tournament that had been fairly timid turned nasty late in the game yesterday with the first two fights: Defenseman David Koci got the best of a brief scrap with right winger Jason MacDonald, and defenseman Ian Moran and center Zenon Konopka engaged in a spirited tussle.