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Struggling Lightning Call On Ramo

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By ERIK ERLENDSSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 20, 2007

Updated: 12/20/2007 12:14 am

TAMPA - The future of the franchise turns into the present tonight.

And should goaltender Karri Ramo provide the Lightning with a boost, his presence will be quite a gift to a struggling team.

With Tampa Bay mired in a funk, having allowed 18 goals during a three-game losing streak heading into tonight's game against Toronto, the Lightning summoned their highly touted 21-year-old Finnish netminder from the team's minor-league affiliate with the intention of giving him his first career NHL start tonight.

"We have consistently been getting reports out of Norfolk that Ramo is ready when we need him," Lightning general manager Jay Feaster said. "In a perfect world he would continue to stay down there and work on his game, but we're not in a perfect world and right now we are struggling.

"I think we are at a point right now where I don't think either one of our guys Johan Holmqvist or Marc Denis is playing with a lot of confidence."

And confidence is one area in which Ramo certainly isn't lacking. When he made his NHL debut in relief Dec. 2 last year in Ottawa, he stood up in the locker room during the second intermission and tried to rally the troops despite trailing 4-2 entering the third period. When he was called up later in the season and served as the backup to Holmqvist in the playoffs, Ramo was looking for playing time. And had it not been for a high-ankle sprain suffered early this season with Norfolk, it's a good bet Ramo would have found his way to Tampa much sooner.

"I like his swagger, I don't think a whole bunch bothers him good or bad," Lightning coach John Tortorella said.

After being named an All-Star in his first pro season in North America last year, Ramo played in one game this year before suffering a high-ankle sprain that forced him to miss nearly two months. He returned to action on Dec. 1 and gave up seven goals on 33 shots after suffering from fatigue late in the game. Since then Ramo has been solid, stopping 114 of 122 shots for a .934 save percentage and 2.13 goals against average in his last four starts with the Admirals.

But he has yet to play a full game at the NHL level and will get a baptism by fire against the Leafs.

"That's how it is in hockey; you have to always be ready to play and that's the mentality down in the AHL is that you are preparing to play in the NHL sooner or later," said Ramo, who boarded a 7 a.m. flight from Bridgeport, Conn., Wednesday to get to Lightning practice. "I'm just going to go on the ice and have fun."

There is a danger, however, that with the inconsistencies the Lightning goaltending has endured since the lockout ended that Ramo is being looked at as some sort of a savior who can restore some confidence and attitude into the team.

"With the reports from the Norfolk staff and with goaltending being one of our struggles, not the only struggle going on with this team, we need to look at Ramo," Tortorella said. "We feel he has a tremendous upside to him with the future of this hockey club ... and we have high hopes.

"When we are struggling as we are right now at that position, I think we are forcing the future here a little bit. It's coming earlier than we expected, but it's something we need to do here."

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