Vancouver Canucks goal keeper, Roberto Luongo, shows the best of him in Game 5 by making 54 saves
There was a time during the play-offs when Vancouver Canucks goal keeper, Roberto Luongo, was struggling to show the very best of him. In his latest game that saw Canucks ousting Sharks to go ahead to the Stanley Cup Finals, Roberto was simply brilliant.
However, his bad time created an air of disappointment among the goalie and even forced Canucks’ coach to start with Corey Schneider in goal.
Roberto sat out the entire first round of the play-offs and from the looks of it, this has helped him in improving his form.
The level of determination coupled with his confidence and performances has put Canucks in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1994.
Luongo displayed probably one of the best performances of his career during which he made 54 saves.
Out of the 54 saves, 16 came during the first overtime that eventually took the Canucks to a 3-2 victory in the end.
The game was being played at the HP Pavilion Center and despite the away ice pressure, Canucks was able to show what it is made of to score a late goal and win the game and the series after immense anticipation among the arena.
Sharks scored a goal in the early part of the third period to get into a 2-1 lead in the game. It looked as if they would win the game when all of a sudden, Canucks scored to level the scores.
Luongo kept on making saves and when the final period ended, he had bagged a total of 30 saves already.
With the Game 5 performance, he certainly showed as to why he was still in the running for the Vezina Cup trophy.
"He was great. He turned away everything", teammate, Ryan Kesler, said. "After he let that one in the third, he shut the door after that. He really battled hard and gave us a chance to win".
He was superb to say the least especially during the first period of regulation time and first overtime where he piled up save after save.
He didn’t care whether Canucks was down 5 to 3 but all he knew was that they had to win the game at any cost that pushed him to come up with such an impressive performance.
"That's what hockey is all about. That's why you play, to be in situations like that", Luongo said.
"You know, overtime in a conference final, you dream of things like that. I was just going out there, and I was out in front playing the game. I felt great the whole game. I was in the zone. I was just having fun out there".
Even though Luongo conceded two goals that put Sharks in the lead, he managed to come back with a superb performance to win the game for Canucks in the end.
As a result he was also named the star of the game, maintaining 0.964 saves percentage during the game.
Tags: