By MIKE SCANDURA, Special to the Times Union First published: Saturday, September 29, 2001
Bruins2 Rats1 PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Who will be the backup for New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur? Good question. Who will play between the pipes this season for the Albany River Rats? Another good question.
The answers to both questions won't be determined for at least a couple of days. But young Ari Ahonen may have improved his chances of winning a job -- most likely with Albany -- on Friday during a 2-1 exhibition loss to the Providence Bruins.
The 20-year-old native of Jyvaskyla, Finland, turned aside 30 of the 32 shots he faced, including 16 during a hectic second period.
"He made some big saves,'' Albany coach Bobby Carpenter said. "They had a lot of shots, he kept us in the game and he gave us a chance to win at the end. That's all we can ask of him.''
Ahonen stopped a couple of testers by Carl Corazzini in the third period, which began with Providence leading 2-0. And he definitely was on top of his game in the second period, when Mikko Jokela was assessed a five-minute major for high-sticking Shawn Maltby in the face and drawing blood. Ahonen made one solid stop in particular on Corazzini while keeping Providence off the board.
Carpenter had only 15 skaters in uniform, which might explain the River Rats' difficulty in generating offense. Providence coach Bill Armstrong dressed the full allotment of 18.
"They had some injuries up in New Jersey,'' Carpenter said. "And they have five games in six nights, so certain guys joined them for a certain amount of games because you can't play three in a row. We just kind of got stuck with a short roster.''
Carpenter, too, was short when it came to handing out individual compliments, with the exception of Ahonen.
"I don't want to separate anybody,'' Carpenter said. "We just rolled 'em along and there weren't many surprises. I was pleased with how the kids worked. They worked really hard today, and that was our main goal, to work hard.''
One veteran who worked hard was forward Ted Drury, who has 414 NHL games on his resume. Drury took four shots, three of which came in the first two periods and wound up as impressive saves by Providence's Jeff Maund. Richard Rochefort also kept Maund busy, leading Albany with five shots.
Albany finally put a shot past Maund at 11:12 of the third period. Defenseman Victor Uchevatov snapped off a wrister that Maund was unable to glove, and Carlyle Lewis went top shelf with the rebound.
The Bruins made it 1-0 at 8:42 of the first period while Albany's Christian Berglund was in the penalty box for tripping. Zdenek Kutlak let go a wrist shot from the bottom of the left circle and Corazzini deflected it past Ahonen.
Maund made a superb kick save on Drury moments later, and the Bruins increased their lead to 2-0 at 2:36 of the second when Chris Berti flicked in the rebound of a Gregor Krajnc shot.
"We rolled the lines and took quick shifts,'' Carpenter said. "That's what we had to do with only 15 players, and I was very happy with the way the team responded.''