Canucks’ Luongo Tells the Story of What Happened in Game 5 in 2007

Credit: pointnshoot/Flickr

Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo appeared on CBC’s After Hours segment and he told the story of what happened in Game 5 in 2007’s first round playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks.

The game was tied 1-1 after regulation, but when the overtime period began, Luongo failed to emerge. Instead, his backup Dany Sabourin took the ice and ended up tending goal for the Canucks for the first three minutes of overtime. It was presumed Luongo was experiencing an equipment problem, but it was revealed later following the loss that Luongo was experiencing diarrhea. The intricate details of actually what happened was not known—until now.

“I started having stomach problems in the third period and usually, sometimes, it happens during a game, but they just go away. But once I got back to the locker room, I sat down and I was fine and I was just [going to] let it pass,” Luongo explained. “Once I stood up to get ready to go to the ice, which was three minutes before the intermission [ends], I went to the trainer and was like ‘I can’t, I can’t, I gotta go’.”

Canucks captain Markus Naslund came onto the ice prior to the start of overtime to speak with the referees to buy sometime, but the play started without Luongo.

“Bill McCreey was the [referee]. He’s like ‘Yeah, just go. We’ll wait for you,’ so I’m doing my business and all of a sudden, I hear the play starting and I’m in the bathroom. Needless to say I hurried up to get [back to the bench],” Luongo said.

Photo Credit: pointnshoot/Flickr