This was the toughest ranking I've had in a long time. Goalies flat out dominated the last two weeks. Most team defenses were strong and the the shots against were also very impressive.

This wasn't just veteran stars either. We have a strong crop of young guys ready to take over No. 1 jobs, and I can't believe how calm, cool and collected these guys are with relatively little NHL experience.

I had no idea what to expect the first time I saw Sebastien Caron of the Penguins relieve J.S. Aubin in the ABC game on Jan. 11. The kid stepped up and stopped all 18 shots he faced. He then skated into Boston, a place the Penguins struggle, won 2-1 and earned first-star honors with 31 saves. He continued his hot play by posting his first shutout in Carolina (26 saves) and winning 3-2 at Tampa (29 saves), before losing 3-0 in Florida (29 saves).

Michael Leighton of the Blackhawks shows as much calmness as anyone I've seen and he's had a good NHL start, although the Hawks are sliding at the moment.

Ryan Miller has been terrific for the Sabres and has been selected to play in the YoungStars Game as part of All-Star Weekend in Sunrise, Fla. He is 4-1-1 in January and was strong in the 2-2 tie at San Jose (31 saves) and the 1-0 whitewash at Minny, making 22 saves and earning first-star honors. He may get a chance to lead the Rochester Americans of the AHL, if the Sabres don't make the playoffs, and that can only help his progress as an NHL goalie.

Roberto Luongo continues to show signs of absolute brilliance for the Panthers, as he bounced back from a 6-2 loss at New Jersey (35 saves), only to stymie the Bruins and Penguins by a combined 6-0 score (making 62 saves in the process), before losing to the Habs 3-2 (31 saves, third star).

I never thought I'd see a goalie play in 1,000 regular season games, but we all got a chance to witness it Monday night on ESPN2 with Patrick Roy playing an outstanding game against the Dallas Stars. His positioning reminded me of last year when he put in a performance worthy of the Hart and Vezina Trophies, which eventually went to Jose Theodore. This season, I have seen him slide -- or "fade" away -- from shots instead of the displaying the confidence and squareness to the shooter that has made him the all-time best. He looked good in the 1-1 tie, a game that could be exactly what was needed to get himself and the Avs back on track.

Marty Turco and the Stars had a six-day break in their schedule, so the lack of games left him off the top five, but his play continues to shine. After their layoff, he won 3-1 in San Jose after their break, making 31 solid saves, and tied Roy and the Avs 1-1 at Denver in a very intense and passionate game. By the way, he's never lost to Patrick Roy.

Let's get to the rankings ...

The top five rankings:

Roloson	5. Dwayne Roloson, Minnesota Wild 6 GP, 3-3-0, 1.32 GAA, .949 save percentage With Manny Fernandez out, Rolie has started a franchise-record eight straight games and hasn't slipped. Meanwhile, the Wild have turned their attention back to suffocating defensive play. If they could have scored a few more goals for their affable goalie, he would have had four or five wins in his last six. Instead, the Wild scored only one goal in those three losses -- 2-1 vs. Columbus, 1-0 vs. Buffalo and 1-0 vs. Anaheim. In those six games, the Wild combined for just 10 goals -- five of them coming in the 5-2 win vs. Vancouver.
Dunham	4. Mike Dunham, New York Rangers 5 GP, 4-1-0, 1.39 GAA, .948 save percentage Dunham has started 15 of the 16 games since he was acquired from Nashville. He has gone 4-1-0 in his last five, giving the Rangers some consistency in the net. Dan Blackburn played well in a rare start, losing 3-2 in Montreal while making 30 saves. Dunham, who has broken in a new set of Ranger-colored pads, has given up only seven goals (one empty-netter) in his last five games. And if not for a couple of rebounds against the Flyers, while the Rangers were leading 2-0, he would have won his fifth in a row.
Lalime	3. Patrick Lalime, Ottawa Senators 5 GP, 4-1-0, 1.28 GAA, .940 save percentage All the talk coming out of Canada's capital has been about the team's financial situation. Meanwhile, all Lalime has done is thrown bagels at his opponents, putting together a sterling streak of three shutouts. He went on the road and beat Calgary (1-0) and Edmonton (2-0), before spanking Tampa Bay 7-0 on home ice before a capacity crowd. Give credit to team defense, as Lalime only faced 58 shots in the three games -- about as many as Marc Denis faces in four periods for the Blues Jackets. But Lalime is making the tough saves look easy with sound positioning and the tallest set of pads around. Martin Prusek beat Anaheim 3-1 to give Lalime a break, before he beat Washington 5-2. He finally slipped in Tampa, as he gave up four goals before getting pulled.
Giguere	2. Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 5 GP, 4-1-0, 1.78 GAA, .938 save percentage The Ducks continue to impress with solid team play, even without the services of spunky forward Andy McDonald. The Ducks are in the race in the West, as Giguere has won four of his last five games. In his last start, he gained the Ducks a point in a 2-1 OT loss vs. Minnesota, during which he made several brilliant saves and was named the third star. He was the first star in the Ducks' 1-0 win at Minnesota (33 saves), which was preceded by three key Western Conference wins -- at Columbus (4-3), vs. St. Louis (2-1) and at Colorado (5-3, 36 saves). His six shutouts tie him for the league lead with Blackhawks netminder Jocelyn Thibault.
Brodeur	1. Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils 5 GP, 4-0-1, 1.57 GAA, .933 save percentage He is the NHL's Player of the Week, becoming the seventh goalie to win the award this season. He won four straight games while putting together some mini-me-ish type of numbers -- a 1.25 GAA and a .950 save percentage. Incredibly, he is only five wins away from becoming the first goalie in NHL history to register 30-plus wins in eight consecutive seasons. After shutting out the Islanders 5-0 and beating the Panthers 6-2, Brodeur was strong in a key matchup vs. the 'Canes, winning 2-1. He has gone 5-0-1 in his last six games. He has 60 career shutouts and appears to be the only goalie with the chance to challenge Terry Sawchuk's once impervious mark of 103 career shutouts.

Darren Pang, a former goaltender with the Chicago Blackhawks, is a hockey analyst for ESPN. His goalie rankings appear every other week in Net Effect.