Luongo breaks his own shutout record...

On Wednesday evening, in front a national audience on TSN (a network that loves to show off the former Hockey Night in Canada theme song that they acquired in the offseason), the Vancouver Canucks took on the Colorado Avalanche at home. Roberto Luongo entered the game with a very impressive three consecutive shutouts. In Wednesdays contest, he eclipsed his own franchise-record scoreless streak by stymieing the Avalanche for the first 41:28 of the game. The consecutive streak reached 242 minutes and 36 seconds before Paul Stastny finally registered a third period goal to break it, tie the game to send it into overtime and then finally a shootout.

Roberto Luongo

The Canucks were not doing much to help their captain keep the streak going, as he was virtually left out to dry in the first period, where the Avalanche peppered him non-stop. At one point, the shots were 8-1 for the visitors and the scoring chances 6-0. To say the Canucks were lucky to get out of the period tied at zero is an understatement.

Taylor Pyatt scored on a penalty shot in the second period for Vancouver, as the Canucks finally started to wake up. And for a while, this seemed like it was going to be enough.

It was a classic goaltending duel between Luongo and Colorado keeper Peter Budaj. Both goaltenders put on a clinic during regulation and overtime was no different. It took Marek Svatos’ near perfect shot in the shootout to lift the Avs over the Canucks.

Vancouver’s next matchup will feature a rare visit from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. The NHL amended it’s scheduling for this season, such that all Canadian teams would play each other twice, once in each city. It’s nice to see the Canadian teams with the opportunity to play each other a bit more often. As always, there will be no shortage of Leafs fans in the crowd, as is the case when they visit almost any Canadian city.

The Canucks will visit Toronto as part of an Eastern Canada road trip in February.