Hockey Heaven: Articles
Last laugh goes to Ferraro, Providence
Sunday November 14, 1999
By BARRY SCANLON
Sun Staff

Bruins 5, Monsters 4

LOWELL -- Roberto Luongo couldn't believe it. Neither could the 6,238 fans at Tsongas Arena.

A seemingly harmless slap shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle by Peter Ferraro with 3:38 left in regulation snuck through Luongo's pads, lifting Providence to a 5-4 victory over Lowell in American Hockey League action last night.

Luongo lay motionless on the ice for several seconds after Ferraro's shot gave Providence, the defending Calder Cup champs, their first-ever win in Lowell after three defeats last season.

"I was stunned, too," Lowell coach Bruce Boudreau said. "In hindsight maybe I should have played Travis (Scott). This was (Luongo's) first back-to-back games and I wanted to see how he could handle it. I had all the confidence in the world that he could do it. You expect him to make the great save all the time."

Lowell fell to 7-6-3-1, while Providence is now 10-5-2-0.

Luongo had only lost one of his last nine starts, but he clearly wasn't as sharp as he was in a 2-1 win in Syracuse on Friday night.

"They're down," Boudreau said about his team "We played a good game and we
didn't get rewarded for it."

Jason Podollan, Vladimir Orszagh, Ray Giroux and David Hymovitz scored for
Lowell, which held a 31-28 shot advantage. But Ferraro's shot sent Lowell's
largest crowd of the season home unhappy.

"I'm a firm believer in shooting the puck anyhow, anyway," said Providence coach Peter Laviolette.

The third period, which began with Lowell ahead 3-2, started in wild fashion.

Power-play goals by Antti Laaksonen and Shane Belter 39 seconds apart lifted
the Bruins into a 4-3 lead. Belter's slap shot from the left point sailed through Luongo's pads at 3:52, just five seconds after Dmitri Nabokov was called for slashing, and it came on Providence's 19th shot of the evening.

Hymovitz, who hadn't scored since Oct. 29, picked a nice time to get another one. Breaking in two-on-one with Rich Brennan, Hymovitz decided to keep the puck and the move paid off when his 20-foot bomb exploded into the Providence cage at 5:02 to tie it, 4-4.

In the first period, Lowell took a 1-0 when Podollan connected for a power-play goal, his sixth of the season, at 7:19. A shot from the right point into a scrum of players went across the crease to Podollan at the left post and he stuffed it past Providence forward Sean Pronger. Orszagh and Eric Belanger were credited with assists.

But the Bruins rallied for a pair of goals to take the lead.

Luongo stopped a redirection in front by Ferraro, but the rebound squired to his right, where Tim Lovell swooped in and found a vacated cage at 8:30.  Providence took the 2-1 lead on an innocent play. Brandon Smith's wrist shot sailed wide, but rebounded right to an uncovered Jeremy Brown at 12:59 for a tap-in past Luongo.

The Lock Monsters played one of their most solid periods in the second, outshooting Providence 13-8 and getting goals by Orszagh and Giroux to take a 3-2 edge after 40 minutes.

Midway through the period, the Bruins grabbed the momentum and it took a
terrific two-on-one rush by Podollan and Orszagh to stem the tide and, more
importantly, tie the game. Podollan collected the puck at center ice, broke down the left side and showed his veteran poise by waiting for Providence's Jassen Cullimore to make a move. When Cullimore dove to the ice, Podollan hit Orszagh with a pass and the Russian rocket snapped a one-timer over Whitmore's left shoulder at 11:46 for his second goal of the season.

Luongo robbed Jonathan Aitken 30 seconds later and Giroux put the Lock
Monsters in front for the second time at 14:17 when his wrist shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle somehow slipped behind a stunned Whitmore.

Lowell has little time to feel sorry for itself: the Lock Monsters play today at Hartford.

© 1999 The Lowell Sun

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