Iginla, Luongo, Souray named Western all-stars
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 7, 2009 | 4:30 PM ET
CBC Sports
Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla was again named to the NHL all-star game on Wednesday. (Dave Sandford/Getty Images)Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo may be injured, but he was recognized as an all-star on Wednesday as the reserves for the Western Conference were named.
Luongo recorded five shutouts and a 2.19 goals-against average through 19 games before suffering a groin injury on Nov. 22, with no indication the Montreal native will be back soon.
The all-star game takes place on Jan. 24 in Montreal.
The other goalie picked to back up starter Jean-Sebastien Giguere of Anaheim was Niklas Backstrom of Minnesota. The Wild have allowed the fewest goals in the NHL, largely thanks to Backstrom.
Defenceman Sheldon Souray of the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames captain Jarome Iginla were also selected for the team.
Souray has bounced back from an injury-plagued season. The defenceman has scored 12 goals and 16 assists with a plus-2 rating.
The defence corps reserves also include Niklas Lidstrom of Detroit, Dan Boyle of San Jose and Nashville's Shea Weber. The starters voted by the fans were Brian Campbell of Chicago and Scott Niedermayer of Anaheim.
Iginla has 18 goals and 28 assists through 40 games to help lead Calgary to top spot in the Northwest division.
Iginla wasn't the only gritty forward with scoring ability named as a Western reserve on Wednesday. Keith Tkachuk of St. Louis, Shane Doan of Phoenix and Dustin Brown of Los Angeles also fit in that category.
Detroit's talented two-way forward Pavel Datsyuk was picked, as were the skilled Milan Hejduk of Colorado, Rick Nash of Columbus and San Jose's Joe Thornton. Veteran Mike Modano of Dallas rounds out the forward group.
Chicago young guns Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were announced last week as starters at forward, as was Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf.
Backstrom, Boyle, Brown and Weber are the players set to make their all-star debuts in the 57th edition of the game.
The Eastern reserves will be announced on Thursday.
