Roberto Luongo made 28 saves for his 73rd career shutout, leading the Florida Panthers to a 3-0 win over the New Jersey Devils on Monday night.
Luongo, tops among active goalies in shutouts, got his first of the season to move three behind Ed Belfour and Tony Esposito for ninth all-time. Retired Devils great Martin Brodeur holds the NHL record with 125.
Reilly Smith, Jussi Jokinen and Vincent Trocheck scored for Florida, which won for the third time in five games.
New Jersey was shut out for the third time this season, and for the first time at home since a 1-0 loss to Washington last March 25th. Cory Schneider finished with 26 saves for the Devils, who lost their third straight.
Both teams played conservatively, cognizant of eliminating the middle of the ice. As a result, the game was mostly played on the perimeter and there was little in the way of sustained pressure in the offensive zone.
Tt took New Jersey rookie Pavel Zacha's five-minute major for boarding Denis Malgin to set the stage for Smith to open the scoring.
Smith's power play goal with 3:05 left in the first gave the Panthers a lead they would not relinquish. With 22 seconds left in the man advantage, Smith took a centering feed from Jokinen in the slot and fired a shot that Schneider stopped, but the New Jersey netminder couldn't control the rebound, leading to Smith's rebound goal for his eighth.
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Florida finished the game 1 for 6 on the man advantage, while killing off both New Jersey power plays.
Even though Luongo was not under siege — Florida finished with a 29-28 advantage in shots on goal — he was steadfast when he needed to be. His most noteworthy save occured with five minutes left in the second as he stopped Damon Severson's attempt from the right point before Sergey Kalinin misfired from the low slot.
Jokinen and Trocheck added empty-netters in the final minute.
Florida swept the three-game season series after winning each of the first wo meetings in overtime in the opening weeks of the season.
