Luongo’s splendid saves help
First-period diligence by Canucks makes the difference
DETROIT — How’s this for a great opening period of a road game?
Your opponents haven’t lost in their building since Nov. 3 of the previous calendar year.
Not only that, in 10 of their 23 wins, the margin was three goals or more.
But you outshoot the hosts 17-5 in the first 20 minutes — even though they had three power plays to your one!
Yet the Canucks allowed just one shot over the six minutes of those Detroit man-advantages, while forcing seven Detroit turnovers and creating six Canucks take-aways.
Despite ending the first period down 1-0, the Canucks’ penalty kill and their 5-on-5 pressure in the first 20 minutes was the difference in the game.
“It was unbelievable, great job by the guys,” Roberto Luongo said. “Except for that one shot, they were pressuring the puck, Detroit had trouble coming into the zone and any time we had it on our stick it was out of the zone.”
Luongo was fooled on Detroit’s first goal, a knuckleball off Darren Helm’s stick, but he made several splendid saves to keep his team in the game, especially when Detroit opened a shooting gallery in the last couple of minutes of the second period, registering four shots in the final scrambly 20 seconds alone.
“I was just trying not to throw up,” deadpanned Luongo, the Canucks’ most valuable player over the past three months.
“There was a lot of activity around the net and I was just trying to stay as big as possible.
“The boys did a good job making sure they got their sticks in front of the net, stuff like that.”
But it was in the shootout that Luongo shone brightest.
Remember when fans clamoured for Alain Vigneault to put a cold Cory Schneider in for shootouts?
Luongo at the time was 1-5 in shootouts and his save percentage was sub-.500
Well, he stuffed Jiri Hudler, then Henrik Zetterberg and the tantalizingly slow Todd Bertuzzi to improve to 6-6 with a save percentage now of .595.
The save on Bertuzzi was particularly fun to watch because the big wing can be so creative in the event.
Last night he came in so cautiously, any slower and he’d have been skating backward.
“I was just trying to be patient in the shootout, trying to think of the moves those guys like to make, then let them make the first move,” Luongo said. “Todd, I’ve seen him a few times on TV. He usually makes five or six moves and does something.
“I just tried to react as soon as he let it go and I was able to get a good chunk of it.”