The Canucks lead the series 3-2 after Luongo posted his fourth shutout of the playoffs and second of the Stanley Cup finals after giving up 12 goals in less than four periods during two blowout losses in Boston.
"There was something about him before the game," said Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa, who set up the only goal. "he just seemed so comfortable, so confident. He was vocal, and usually he's not a vocal guy. We thought it would be something special." Game 6 is Monday night in Boston, and the Stanley Cup will be there.
The Canucks have scored just six goals in five Stanley Cup finals games against brilliant Boston goalie Tim Thomas, yet they're one victory away from winning it all.
Neither team found an offensive flow in a Game 5 nail-biter, but Luongo kept Vancouver in it until Lapierre and Bieksa teamed up on a goal that set off a crazy celebration among tens of thousands of fans thronging downtown Vancouver.
Luongo was pulled from Game 4, but coach Alain Vigneault stuck with him for Game 5. The Olympic champion was only occasionally spectacular, but he still narrowly outplayed Thomas, who has received just two goals of support from his teammates in three games in Vancouver.
"(Luongo) knows that we believe in him," Vancouver forward Alex Burrows said. "He's unreal. We have so much confidence in him, and he doesn't listen to what people outside this locker room say. We know he's the best goalie in the league." Thomas made 24 saves in Game 5, but lost his shutout streak of 110 minutes, 42 seconds dating to Game 3. With injured forward Nathan Horton's jersey hanging in the visitors' locker room, the Bruins' power play regressed to its previous postseason struggles, going 0 for 4.
After two scoreless periods of stellar goaltending in which Boston went scoreless on four power plays, the Canucks finally connected with a supremely heady play by the veteran Bieksa, who used Thomas' aggressive style against him.
Bieksa deliberately put a long shot wide of the goal, and when Thomas instinctively moved to his glove side to play it, the puck ricocheted off the backboards straight to Lapierre, who put it behind Thomas for just his second goal of the postseason.
"I hope I was trying to miss the net, because I missed it by about 8 feet," Bieksa said. "I didn't have a real good angle to the net, so I just put it up there and got a good bounce." Lapierre was a late-season acquisition who largely serves as an agitator for the Canucks, not a scorer. He's never managed more than 15 goals in a season, and he had just six this season while playing for Montreal, Anaheim and Vancouver.
The Canucks hung on from there, winning their sixth straight home playoff game since May 7.
