He Shoots-Oops-He Scores

Dominic Moore must be an excellent billiards player. How else to explain his game tying goal against the Panthers with three seconds left in the game. Moore behind the net threw out a backhander off Panther defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, which hit off of goalie Roberto Luongo and into the net to tie a game that the Rangers seem destined to lose because of penalties and soft play by the defense. The Prince (Lundqvist) played well in goal with 38 saves and shined in the shootout stopping four out of four Panther shots.

The shootout, ah, my favorite of all the 'gimmicks' that Bettman and company have come up with. However, the Rangers have come up with the right prescription for this game within a game. It's called Petr Prucha. Petr again came up with the game winner; for the second time in three games he netted the winner. Again he was the fourth one sent up and Tom Renney may have to change his plans. Imagine, Petr Puck is two-for-three in shootouts and Jaromir Jagr is nothing-for-three.

One move that Renney made helped the power play score a goal after going nothing for seven against the Pens. He took Tom Poti off the first power play unit. Don't tell me that Renney is not reading Ranger Pundit. I had that in my last article that Poti should be taken off the first power play unit. Good job, Tom.

Finally the goalie, Prince Henrik Lundqvist, played great. Thirty-eight saves in the game plus four out of four in the shootout. Looked a little rusty in the beginning but then came on strong at the end. He was burned by his defense early in the second period when Stephen Weiss broke in on him untouched to put the Panthers ahead. Moses never parted the Red Sea the way the Rangers parted, or departed, on this one.

The road trip is off to a good start. We got a break on Moore's goal, won the shootout with Prucha again, got great goaltending from The Prince and got scoring from Rucchin and Straka whom we need more from. And when Jagr doesn't score (two assists) and we win that is surely a plus.

ICINGS: another adventure watching the NHL on TV. This time Cablevision was the culprit. The audio was terrible all night and then the entire system went down at the start of the shootout. We were rescued by FSN in Florida to witness the shootout. Too bad their announcers didn't show more enthusiasm on Prucha's game winner.

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