Luongo too hot for feisty Flames to handle
Canucks rely on backup plan to bail them out before late offensive outburst gets the job done
CALGARY — If Roberto Luongo was surprised, imagine how Dustin Butler felt when he got the message Wednesday from the Vancouver Canucks.
With red- hot goalie Cory Schneider down with the flu, the Canucks had to bring Luongo out of mothballs and sign Butler, a University of Calgary goalie, as an emergency backup.
Luongo, who hadn’t started a National Hockey League game since March 18, shook off the rust and helped the Canucks earn a 4- 1 win over the Flames at the Scotiabank Saddledome with a brilliant 40- save performance.
Butler — see story on Page F2 — sat on the bench wearing a ball cap and had a night he figures to remember for the rest of his life.
Luongo would not call his performance a statement game, but it was clear from the emotion in his voice that it meant a great deal to him.
“I really needed to do this first and foremost for myself,” he said. “I think I have been through a lot the last few weeks so I wanted to really make sure that I showed the guys that I am here for the rest of the year and 100 per cent dedicated and I want to make sure they know that.”
Luongo found out late Wednesday morning that Schneider, who had started the last 11 games, was not going to be able to play.
“I was nervous. Go figure after 12 years in the league you are still nervous to play a game,” Luongo said. “It was an important game for me. I wanted to make sure that I gave the team a chance to win. The boys battled hard and got rewarded there in the third with some goals.”
Apart from the goaltending drama, the game was a fairly dull affair until the Canucks scored three goals in a span of less than five minutes late in the third period.
Max Lapierre broke a 1- 1 tie at 12: 37 of the third as the Canucks earned their fourth straight win and moved six points up on the Minnesota Wild atop the Northwest Division standings. The Wild have one game in hand.
Lapierre’s game- winner came against the run of play. The Flames had been peppering Luongo with shots for much of the third period. But the Canucks forced a Calgary turnover in the corner and Andrew Ebbett found Lapierre in front. He stuffed the puck past Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.
Mason Raymond added an insurance goal at 15: 34 of the third. He batted a rebound out of mid- air after Kiprusoff had stopped a point shot by defenceman Dan Hamhuis.
Daniel Sedin, with a powerplay goal, made it 4- 1 at 17: 27 of the third.
The Flames outshot Vancouver 41- 29 overall and 18- 9 in the third period.
“I don’t think we played our best game the first two periods and in the third we put some shifts together finally and scored some goals,” said centre Ryan Kesler, who drew assists on Vancouver’s final two goals.
After Daniel’s power- play goal, the players tried to persuade coach Alain Vigneault to get Butler into the game.
“I was feeling a lot of pressure from my bench,” Vigneault said. “Everybody was after me to put him in. I think it says a lot about the group. They wanted the young man to get a little taste of the NHL. But we didn’t get a whistle and I’m not sure if we had one what I would have done.” Butler was OK with that. “It was all right by me to just sit and watch,” Butler said after the game.
It became something of a whirlwind day for the 25- yearold after he got a call from his university coach in the noon hour letting him know the Canucks needed him. His day included a drive to Red Deer and back to pick up his gear.
“It was a bit of a hectic afternoon,” he said.
Butler just finished his fifth year tending goal for the Calgary Dinos, where he sported a 2.44 goals against average and .903 save percentage in 17 games this season.
“The guys treated me really well and made me feel part of things,” said Butler, who was presented with an autographed goal stick after the game. “It was definitely lots of fun.”
Butler said he really wasn’t all that nervous.
“At the end of the day it’s just a hockey game, but you see these guys on TV every night so it’s neat to come in and see what they are actually like away from the cameras and get to know them a bit. There were a few comments about another red- headed goalie coming in.”
The teams traded goals in a rather lacklustre first period. Curtis Glencross opened scoring at the 16: 17 mark when he spun in the slot and fired a shot that bounced off Kesler and past Luongo. West Vancouver native Max Reinhart drew an assist on the goal for his first NHL point.
But Alex Burrows got that one back just over a minute later when the NHL war room reversed a no- goal call by the game officials. Burrows scored in a scramble and it was initially ruled that he had directed the puck in with his leg. But replays appeared to indicate the puck actually went in off of Calgary defenceman Dennis Wideman. The goal was Burrows’ teambest 12th of the season.
ICE CHIPS: Cam Barker and Steve Pinizzotto were healthy scratches for the Canucks. ... The Canucks will travel Thursday to Denver, where they are scheduled to practise on Friday and meet the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday at noon. ... Reinhart told reporters after the game: “I was just happy to get a point. It just takes a little bit of pressure off you. I was able to just settle down, knowing I got at least one point while I was up here. It relaxed me, gave me a sense of relief.”