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Dubinsky, Rangers eyeing sweep in Prague

Oct 5, 2008 - 1:35 PM Tampa Bay (0-1-0) at NY Rangers (1-0-0), 12:00 pm EDT

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (Ticker) -- Fresh off his heroics in the season opener, Brandon Dubinsky will try to lead the New York Rangers to a sweep at the O2 Arena when they face the Tampa Bay Lightning again Sunday as part of NHL Premiere 2008.

Dubinsky scored a power-play goal to snap a tie with 5:44 remaining in the third period on Saturday as the Rangers opened the regular season with a 2-1 triumph over the Lightning.

With the Rangers on the power play late in the third period, Dubinsky skated in from the right faceoff circle and wristed a shot that sailed past a thoroughly screened goaltender Mike Smith and just inside the left goalpost for the game-winner.

"We played great and we deserved to win tonight," Dubinsky said. "We're real happy with the way we played start to finish, and happy that we got the result we wanted."

Martin St. Louis scored and Smith finished with 39 saves for Tampa Bay, which finished the 2007-08 season with an NHL-worst 31 wins.

After spending more than a decade as a television analyst, Lightning coach Barry Melrose was quick to pinpoint why his return to the bench was not triumphant.

"Seven penalties against a very good power play - you don't have to be a math major to realize that's 14 minutes that some of your best players aren't on the ice," said Melrose, who spent three seasons as coach of the Los Angeles Kings from 1992-95.

"That's an extra 14 minutes of hard work for our young defense, and they finally stuck one through - and it was just a matter of time against a great power play like that."

The Rangers enjoyed a 41-21 advantage in shots, which is a promising sign considering the team will be looking for offense following the departure of future Hall of Famer Jaromir Jagr to Avangard Omsk in Russia.

A five-time winner of the Art Ross Trophy as the NHL's leading scorer, Jagr led the Rangers with both 25 goals and 71 points last season.

One of the key free-agent acquisitions to replace Jagr's numbers, Markus Naslund opened the scoring and Henrik Lundqvist made 20 saves for New York.