Has Luongo just cost Vancouver the cup?
Go back a few days and Roberto Luongo just had his second shutout of the Stanley Cup Finals in Vancouver’s second 1-0 win of the best of 7 series. Additional to that, he stopped the rot of conceding goals aplenty and ended the Bruins’ short lived but vital comeback from 2-0 down in the series to 2-2.
At 3-2 and wind out of Boston’s sails, Vancouver had every chance to complete the series win and take game 6 with their regained momentum.
That mattered little though when after that 1-0 victory in a press conference Luongo was asked “what did you make of the goal that got you the win tonight?” To which he replied “it’s not hard (to stop) if you’re playing in the paint, it’s an easy save for me, but if you’re wandering out, that’s going to happen.”
From this point on game 6 didn’t matter, all the talk was of Thomas/Luongo and how these comments (no matter how minor) were going to affect the next game. Boston played it down simply stating the facts that whilst having two shutouts by that point, Luongo had already been pulled in a 4-0 loss one game earlier, and conceded eight in the game prior to that!
In truth that was just the face of it all, it was deeper than that. At 3-2 up and in a good position to wrap up the series and win Vancouver’s first ever Stanley Cup, all they needed to do was keep playing solid hockey and hope that would take them through, which in truth it might well have. However with those comments came a backlash, Thomas until now has been Boston’s beacon this season and that dig just galvanised them as a team, made them thirsty. Game 6 became less a case of who will win, but more of how many will Boston win by?
It was a statement out of character for Roberto, who by all accounts remains a fan of Thomas and his unique goal tending style. But nevertheless it was enough to put fire in the bellies of the opposition and with it leave him on the wrong end of another big scoring game.
Game 6 started much the way it would continue, livewire Marchand scored just after the 5 minute mark on a shot that whilst accurate and travelling some, it should really not have beaten Luongo on his near side post from the wing. There was no real let up from there either as Lucic a product of Vancouver hockey himself added a second goal less than a minute later.
The flood gates looked like they had opened at that point as a Ference power play goal saw Boston 3-0 up within ten minutes, only to be flabbergasted as a fourth beat Luongo on 9 minutes as a driven effort from the much questioned Kaberle was tipped in by a resurgent Michael Ryder.
The second period was time for Thomas to shine again as he pulled of a string of top notch saves and really looked to back up his nomination for the Vezina Trophy with another solid showing. Thomas was named again in the 3 stars for the series after the game.
As good as he had been though, there wasn’t a lot in truth that he could do to stop Henrik Sedin notching his first point of the series as Vancouver turned up the heat in the powerplay less than a minute into the third period.
Boston were quick to rally though and restored their four goal lead shortly after, as Krejci notched a goal with the man advantage. The goal gave Krejci the record for the most goals in a play-off run for a Czech player, previously held by the great Jagr. Late pressure saw LaPierre add a second goal in two games as he made it 5-2 with minutes to go, but in truth this game was long over after the 1st and set up what is sure to be a great game 7.
One thing is for sure after this though, Luongo won’t be quite so quick to judge after this response in game 6. Thomas quickly noted it was key that they didn’t give Vancouver any extra confidence than they already had. The crowd more than played their part in inspiring Boston too, relentlessly chanting Horton,Horton throughout. However basic, it worked and a Horton-less Boston won in some style.
So game 7 is set to be a certain now in this soap opera that has been the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, Boston hasn’t had the lead once in this series can they grab it when it matters?
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