WATCH: The tribute video played for Roberto Luongo in the first period of tonight’s game
VANCOUVER – Jonathan Huberdeau had two goals and an assist and Roberto Luongo stopped 32 shots in his return to Vancouver as the Florida Panthers defeated the Canucks 3-1 on Thursday night.
Aleksander Barkov also scored for Florida (18-11-9) as Luongo picked up the 389th victory of his career to tie Dominic Hasek for 11th on the all-time goalie wins list.
The victory was also the first of Luongo’s career against the Canucks, giving him at least one against all 30 NHL teams. He was also named the game’s first star, handing his stick over the boards to a young fan in a Vancouver jersey.
Daniel Sedin had the only goal for the Canucks (23-13-3), who got 27 saves from Ryan Miller.
Luongo played eight seasons in Vancouver and won at least 30 games six times — and 40 or more twice — before being traded back to Florida last March after getting benched in the Heritage Classic.
The 35-year-old was honoured seven minutes into Thursday’s first period with a video tribute that was accompanied by a standing ovation by fans at Rogers Arena, who rained down the familiar “Loo” chant at their former netminder.
READ MORE: Roberto Luongo given standing ovation in return to Vancouver
Luongo took his mask off to salute the crowd, and the chant continued throughout the game whenever the Florida goalie touched the puck.
But after all the energy surrounding Luongo’s return to Vancouver subsided, the game settled into what one might expect from a Canucks-Panthers encounter on a Thursday in January.
Tied 1-1 after 20 minutes, the Panthers grabbed their first lead at 7:10 of the second when Barkov scored his fourth of the season on a nice deflection off a point shot from rookie defenceman Aaron Ekblad.
Luongo made a nice pad save on Vancouver forward Shawn Matthias — one of the players acquired in the Luongo deal — off the rush a few minutes later, but a mistake by the Canucks late in the period ensured the Panthers would take a 3-1 lead to the locker-room.
Florida defenceman Dmitry Kulikov caught Vancouver on a bad change and sprung a stretch pass to Huberdeau, who moved in alone on Miller and made no mistake high over the glove for his sixth at 16:43.
The Canucks got a late power play, but Luongo stood tall on chances off the sticks of both Linden Vey and Alexander Edler.
Luongo endured well-documented ups and downs during his time in Vancouver — including winning gold at the 2010 Olympics for Canada, losing Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final and a goalie circus that led to his eventual exit — but he made sure he left Rogers Arena with a good feeling on this night.
After the Panthers had a number of chances to stretch their advantage early in the third against Miller, who was signed in the off-season to be Vancouver’s No. 1 goalie, Luongo stopped Matthias moments later with a great pad save in tight.
The Canucks got a 5-on-3 power play for 40 seconds with 7:50 to go after Florida’s David Bolland was assessed a double minor for high sticking with the Panthers already down a man, but Vancouver was unable to get anything going except for a late chance from Alexandre Burrows.
A scrum at the side of the Florida net with under four minutes to go resulted in Luongo throwing blocker punches at Derek Dorsett. When the dust settled the Panthers ended up with a power play that helped them shepherd the game home.
And as the clock wound down, some of the “Loos” for Luongo turned to boos directed at the home side.
Vancouver started brightly and took the lead at 3:39 of the first period when Daniel Sedin beat Luongo for his ninth of the season past Luongo up high off a feed from his brother Henrik.
Luongo snagged a hard shot from Edler a few minutes later to keep the deficit at one before his teammates evened the score on a strange one at 9:33.
Henrik Sedin attempted to clear the puck from behind his own net, but it pinged its way to Huberdeau in the slot. Miller made a great save on the first shot, but the puck trickled over the line on the rebound. Barkov was initially given credit, but replays showed that Edler put it in his own net off a scramble to hand Huberdeau his fifth of the campaign.
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