One game, two big-time goalies returning from injury.
The Los Angeles Kings dominated the visiting Vancouver Canucks by a score of 3-1 on Saturday night, Kings netminder Jonathan Quick stopping 27 shots in his first action since suffering a grade two groin strain nearly two months ago.
His counterpart on the Canucks, Roberto Luongo, had to work twice as hard in his return from a lower-body injury that forced him to the shelf for three games, stopping 46 shots as he appeared to single-handedly keep the Canucks in the contest through the first two periods.
The besieged Luongo finally yielded two goals in the final frame to cough up the loss, but outspoken coach John Tortorella had nothing but praise for his veteran netminder.
" We don't have a sniff of a chance if he doesn't play the way he did," Tortorella said of Luongo. " I shudder to think what the score would be. So let's not kid ourselves. The game wasn't as close as the score. We have a ton of work to do."
While Tortorella was quick to deflect blame for the loss on his goalie and placing it squarely on the shoulders of his forwards, Quick was just as fast to compliment his teammates.
"The team played great in front of me," Quick said. " I gave up a couple of rebounds, and the guys cleared them out. We kept fighting and got a couple of breaks."
Neither crease-monkey showed any ill effect from their layoffs, and both should be starting goaltenders not only for their respective teams going forward, but also for their country's Olympic squads - Quick for Team USA and Luongo for the Canadian entry.
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