Ducks make Luongo work for Canucks

Maybe the Ducks have the secret to solving the riddle that is Roberto Luongo. No one else does.

With a career-high 47 victories in his first season with Vancouver, Luongo proved he is among the NHL’s top goaltenders. Tonight, as he leads the Canucks into Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals in Anaheim, Luongo will try to confirm that.

The Ducks, though, have had their way with the 28-year-old Montreal native.

On Wednesday night, he was blitzed for four goals on 31 shots before being pulled in the third period of the Ducks’ 5-1 Game 1 rout. The Canucks’ new star saw something he hadn’t encountered much in this career-defining season.

It was “probably the most traffic I’ve seen all year” in front of him, Luongo said. “Their first line is really quick. If you look at two or three of the goals they scored on me, it was all about speed.”

The Ducks have now won all four meetings in which Luongo got the start, counting the regular season and playoffs. Altogether, he has a 4.08 goals-against average against them.

Unsightly numbers, for sure. But the Ducks aren’t acting as if they’ve got him all figured out.

“He’s an elite goaltender,” said the Ducks’ Andy McDonald, who recorded his first career hat trick. “I think he’s going to shrug it off and respond and be even better in Game 2. It doesn’t matter. Game 1 is over.”

One rough night doesn’t diminish what Luongo has done this season. It was only Monday when the 6-foot-3 netminder was serenaded with chants of “Lou-ie, Lou-ie” from more than 18,000 towel-waving fans after the Canucks defeated the Dallas Stars to win their first playoff series since 2003.

“That was a very strong moment,” Luongo said of the fan reaction. “It was emotional.”

In that series, Luongo gave up only 12 goals in 509 minutes, the equivalent of 8 1/2 games. Against the Stars in Game 1, he made a franchise-record 72 saves in a 5-4 four-overtime victory.

Then there are the regular-season numbers: the 47 wins, the 2.29 goals-against average and .921 save percentage that rank him among the league’s top six in those categories. This is why Vancouver General Manager Dave Nonis pursued Luongo, who was acquired in a trade with the Florida Panthers.

“For our team, he’s probably been our most valuable player on the ice,” said Nonis, who quickly signed Luongo to a four-year, $27-million deal. “I think he’s shown a great deal of leadership. His work ethic and his desire to win, to me, are as strong as I’ve ever seen.”

Luongo said the deal initially was a shock to him and his wife, Gina, a South Florida native. But it didn’t take long for them to warm up to Vancouver.

“You don’t know what you’re really getting into once you go to a new team,” he said. “But I was definitely very excited. I knew they had a possibility of making the playoffs.”

But there was one knock on Luongo, who was with the New York Islanders before joining the Panthers. And it was that, until now, he had not played in a postseason game.

“In all due respect to some of the teams he was on, those teams weren’t ready to make the playoffs,” Nonis said. “In a lot of ways, he carried us to the playoffs. He was determined to make it.”

eric.stephens@latimes.com