Luongo joins Roy with rare NHL feat
LUONGO COLLECTS 200TH CAREER WIN WITH PANTHERS
Roberto Luongo joined an exclusive club, becoming only the second goalie to win 200 games with two different teams. He made 23 saves Monday night as Florida beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 for Luongo’s 200th victory as a Panther.
He also won 252 with Vancouver. The other netminder to accomplish the feat was Hall of Famer Patrick Roy with 289 wins for Montreal and 262 for Colorado. Luongo downplayed the feat. “That’s stuff that I’ll look at when it’s all said and done,” Luongo said. “Right now, when you’re in the moment, you don’t want to think too much about those things. Other than you guys reminding me on a daily basis, I don’t really think about it.”
His goal is helping the struggling Panthers gain traction in the standings to make a postseason push.
“Obviously if you’re playing well, you’re going to give your team a chance to win, and those wins and those milestones will come,” Luongo said. “It’s always nice when you reach a certain milestone but the focus is primarily on winning games and trying to get into the playoffs.”
The Panthers took one small step in that direction as Jared McCann scored the go-ahead goal in a see-saw third period.
Aleksander Barkov and Vincent Trocheck also scored as the struggling Panthers cooled off the streaking Devils who were on a 5-1-2 run coming in. The win was the second in the last five games for Florida.
Rookies Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt scored for New Jersey and Corey Schneider made 35 saves.
Barkov snapped a scoreless deadlock on the Panthers 30th shot with 2:40 remaining in the second period.
Florida had dominated play and was finally rewarded with Barkov’s shorthanded tally.
Penguins 5, Flyers 4 (OT)
At Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby redirected Jake Guentzel’s shot past Philadelphia's Bryan Elliott 1:48 into overtime as the Pittsburgh Penguins rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Flyers on Monday night.
The Penguins lost goaltender Matt Murray to a leg injury in the second period and trailed by two entering the third before storming back against the reeling Flyers, who have lost eight straight for their worst skid in nearly a decade.
Patric Hornqvist and Bryan Rust scored 39 seconds apart early in the third to tie it. Philadelphia reclaimed the lead on Michael Raffl’s second goal of the season with 3:19 left in regulation. Guentzel’s second goal of the night evened it with 1:04 remaining.
The Penguins began overtime on the power play and controlled the puck until Crosby’s 10th of the season zipped over Elliott.