Dunham Wears Goat Horns as Rangers Lose

Mike Dunham

The New York Rangers put forward an solid effort last night but were flumoxed by goaltending - at both ends of the ice. Vezina leader Mike Dunham turned an uncharacteristically weak performance as he allowed 4 goals on only 18 shots. The back breaker was came at 0:19 of the third period off a weak wrister from the blue line by Mario Lemieux. The shot appeared to handcuff Dunham and put the Lightning up 4-2. Pavel Bure notched his team leading 26th goal at 5:25 of the third and the Rangers swarmed the Lightning and pounded 12 shots at former Ranger Kari Lehtonen but could not obtain the equalizer. When the smoke cleared the Rangers had launched 37 attempts at Lehtnonen but he stood on his head and only allowed 3 goals.

"We really wanted to win that one," said a clearly frustrated team captain J.P. Dumont after the game. "Especially with Lehtonen in net. You hate to lose to a former teammate like that. Having said that, we played the defending champs tough and haven't let up despite losing a key guy like Spiller for the last 5 games."

"I really feel I let the guys down," sighed a dejected Mike Dunham after the game. I really should have been able to keep that to a goal or two. It's not the kind of effort or result I wanted."

There is some good news for the Rangers, however. Young defenceman Matthew Spiller returns next game after serving his 5 game suspension and should re-establish the Rangers as the best defensive team in the league. Without him Anders Eriksson saw more ice time and filled in admirably but Mike Mottau was shaky at best. The Rangers posted a 2-2-1 record without the youngster and played top tier teams like the Lightning and Predators tough despite losing. Despite the loss the Rangers were the better team against the Lightning last night and lost on a heart breaking goal at 19:51 of the third 3 games ago against the Preds after matching them stride for stride throughout the game.

"We're confident in our team at the moment," said General Manager Burns. "We're playing well. Wade Redden is finally getting some breaks and some points, our goals scorers are scoring when the get opportunities and our defence is tight. We hope this continues and we succeed in making the playoffs as planned."