In Newark Monday night, the Florida Panthers’ Roberto Luongo made 28 saves to blank the New Jersey Devils, 3-0.
The win was Luongo’s 448th career NHL win, good for fifth in NHL history one past Terry Sawchuk.
“[Luongo] was terrific, and we’re really happy for him,” Panthers coach Tom Rowe said. “It shows the longevity of what he’s done. He’s an incredibly professional individual, and we’re all really happy for him. It’s an incredible milestone.”
The whitewash was the first of the season for Luongo.
“Right now, I want to get some wins; our goal is to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, so that’s what my focus is on 100 percent,” said Luongo, who had not earned a shutout since Jan. 22 against the Chicago Blackhawks. “The other things will take care of itself and we’ll reflect on them once all is said and done. But I think as a group we have one goal in mind and that’s to play good every night and keep collecting some points and get back into this thing.”
Cory Schneider made 26 saves in the loss.
“It wasn’t a great game, it wasn’t a terrible game, but that’s probably not good enough right now,” Schneider said. “We need to come up with a little bit more than that. Just find a way to get points. It’s tough to end a homestand in our building and not get a point.”
Reilly Smith, Jussi Jokinen and Vincent Trocheck scored for the Panthers.
“We have to play like we did [against the Devils] every night. That’s playing simple and just kind of dumb down the game a little bit with all the injuries we have,” the Panthers’ Keith Yandle When you’re missing key forwards like we are and players that help your team win, you just have to be reliable in the defense zone and play well in front of the goaltenders.”
The Devils were not lackluster in their effort in the loss but were not threatening either.
“I don’t think we had a whole lot of point shots. We had a few scrums in front of the net where they were close to going in,” New Jersey’s Taylor Hall said. “It’s a really frustrating night for our team because we felt we were right there but couldn’t get that last push to tie it up. When you leave it up to an empty-net play, sometimes it doesn’t go your way. Just a tough night overall.”
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