Luongo quiets his critics

If you are a goaltender in the Stanley Cup Playoffs you are constantly under the spotlight.

After Games 3 & 4 Roberto Luongo must have thought he was in an interrogation room.

He had given up a total of 12 goals in both games and was being outplayed on the other end by Tim Thomas. 

This wasn't the 1st time Luongo had struggled in the playoffs. He played poorly in Games 4 & 5 against Chicago and was benched for Cory Schneider in Game 6 of that series.

After Game 4 talk started swirling once again whether the Canucks would be better off starting Schneider in Game 5 against the Bruins. Alain Vigneault decided to stay with Luongo saying "He was my guy."

Vignealut faith in Luongo paid off in Game 5 as Luongo stopped all 31 shots he faced shutting out the Bruins for the 2nd time in the series as the Canucks won the Game 1-0 to take a 3-2 lead in the series.

Luongo was in a good frame of mind before the start of Game 5 despite all the questions surrounding him.

“It wasn’t time to put your head down,” Luongo said. “Best of 2-out-of-3, and that’s the way I looked at it."

The Bruins had their opportunities in the game but the Canucks defense played better than they did in Games 3 & 4 and whenever Boston had a great scoring chance Luongo was there to turn them away.

"You've got to give Luongo credit," Bruins forward Greg Campbell said. "We had some good chances, and he made some big saves. I think that's a telling tale of not having enough traffic in front of him, not being gritty enough and desperate enough around the net. You have to give the guy credit. He bounced back.

Luongo's teammates weren't surprised by his performance.

"He's a big time goalie," Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa said. He's been there before on the big stage and he's come through. Great game from him tonight."

The Canucks are now one win away from their 1st Stanley Cup in team history. They have to go back to Boston for Game 6 where it won't be easy.

The talk throughout this whole series has been how much better Tim Thomas has been in net than Luongo. Right now Thomas is the favorite to win the Conn Smythe Award. I'm guessing that's OK with Luongo.

I'm sure he'll settle for The Stanley Cup instead.