Rangers Calm the Hurricane

With time winding down and overtime looming in a tightly contested and tense contest in Carolina last night Brad Lukowich slid off the point to the right face off dot and one timed a bullet pass from captain J.P. Dumont to win the game for the New York Rangers.

"When I saw it go in I just went over and patted him on the head," said Dumont. I really had to wire that pass to him and he got all of it. Luksie's been great all year. 39 points for us and a rock on defence. A lot of people were thinking his career was over but he's showing he's still got plenty left in the tank."

Unlike the opening two games in New York, the two teams both put their best games forward last night. The teams went at each other with ferocious intensity and there were many hits, scrums and even an entertaining bout between the Rangers' Ponikarovsky and the 'Canes' Jay McKee. Both teams had good chances and the highlight reel will show great passes, shots, and especially saves at both ends of the ice.

'Canes players Draper and Klesla finished the night with game high 5 hits each. The majority of those hits were absorbed by Lemieux, Sundin, and Bure who really couldn't get much going. Lemieux, who has only 1 goal in the series, was asked if he was concerned about his lack of production "I don't care how many points I get as long as we win," he answered matter of factly.

Although they didn't score and were harassed all night by Carloina's excellent defensive forwards the second unit of Ribeiro between Ponikarovsky and Alfredsson did manage to generate 10 shots on net. The highlight of the night came midway through the second as Ponikarovsky broke in on Theodore and appeared to have a sure goal when he beat the 'tender's poke check but as he went around Theodore he did the splits and knocked a sure goal out of mid air with his blocker.

With no player on the team managing a point a game over the regular season the Rangers secret to success has been a balanced attack and tonight it was the third line getting the job done. Both goals came off passes from the creative Dumont. First Nash tapped in a beautiful set up and then Lukowich with the blast that won the game.

"That's our kind of game," said Redden after the game. "We keep it close and we're comfortable with low scores because we know we have 9 guys up front and at least a few back on defence that can pot one. We're happy with the win but that is one hell of a team on the other side of the rink and we're not taking a single thing for granted. The toughest game is coming up, we're sure of it."