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Harper Woods native Ruggiero wins Florida Panthers backup goaltender contest

MiHockey Staff
billruggiero
Photo from the Bandits Goalie School Facebook page

By @SKubus –

Harper Woods native Bill Ruggiero has been named one of two winners for the Florida Panthers’ Goal of a Lifetime competition. The brother of U.S. women’s Olympic hockey legend Angela Ruggiero will now become the Panthers’ back-up practice goaltender for a day.

The light-hearted fan competition comes off the heels of a near goaltending disaster in Florida on March 3 that saw both Roberto Luongo and Al Montoya suffer injuries. Panthers goaltending coach Rob Tallas, who hasn’t played an NHL game since 2001, was nearly forced to enter the game, but it ended with Luongo putting his gear back on and re-entering the game.

The Panthers saw more than 1,500 Goal of a Lifetime applications come in from 42 states and 15 countries before 65 were ultimately invited to participate. Two 90-minute sessions were run by Tallas, while some Panthers alumni served as shooters.

Ruggiero was named one of the finalists when it was all said and done, and he went head-to-head with Nashville native Dustin Smith during intermission of Tuesday night’s Panthers game against Montreal at the BB&T Center to determine the victor. Panthers alumni Marco Sturm and Radek Dvorak were the shooters in the final competition, and with the netminders dueling to a tie, it was decided that both Ruggiero and Smith would be crowned as winners.

Despite being the brother of such a prestigious hockey figure, Ruggiero has some hockey experience between the pipes himself, playing as high up as the East Coast Hockey League.

The 34-year-old manned goal for the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League in two separate stints between 2004 and 2007; the Johnstown Chiefs of the ECHL in 2001-02; the Motor City Mechanics of the Rochester-headquartered United Hockey League in 2005-06; the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League in 2007-08 and lastly with the Detroit Hitmen of the now-defunct All-American Hockey League – a league that served as a lower affiliate for the ECHL, IHL and CHL – in 2009-10.

He also played 10 games for the Plymouth Whalers in the 1999-00 season alongside Los Angeles Kings forward Justin Williams and Detroit Red Wings forward Stephen Weiss.

Watch the final shootout here: