Official: Vancouver Canucks W00T

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Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
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Canucks, Wild playing it close to the vest

Sports Network
5/2/2003

(Sports Network) - The Vancouver Canucks try to put the upstart Minnesota Wild on the brink of elimination tonight when the teams clash in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series at Xcel Energy Center.

Vancouver holds a two games to one lead on the heels of Tuesday's 3-2 victory in the third contest. Daniel Sedin's goal midway through the second period snapped a 2-2 tie and the Canucks held on for the triumph. Brendan Morrison and Ed Jovanovski also tallied, while Dan Cloutier needed to make just 16 saves for the decision.

The match essentially came down to which club's special teams could out-do the other's, as all five goals were scored on the power play. Vancouver went 3-for-6 with the man advantage and Minnesota finished 2-for-7.

"Fortunately, we came out with more goals on the power play," said Vancouver captain Markus Naslund, who notched two assists. "It was good for us to get it going."

The officials may have called the game tighter than most because things had the potential to become heated after the multi-player scrum at the end of the previous tilt. Then, only seven seconds into Game 3, Vancouver's Brad May and Minnesota's Matt Johnson dropped the gloves and fought.

"That's how the game was called and as a penalty-killing unit, we should have been a lot more solid," Wild defenseman Willie Mitchell said. "That's probably the tightest game we've seen called in the postseason."

The Wild did get power-play goals of their own, from Marian Gaborik and Filip Kuba, Gaborik tying things midway through the second with his sixth playoff goal. Dwayne Roloson stopped just 10 of the 13 shots that went his way.

Hampered by a renewed defensive commitment by the Canucks, the Wild managed a mere 18 shots on goal, including a meager total of five in the third period. Vancouver, meanwhile, fired off only 13 shots, which is a change of pace for a team with a reputation of being an offensive machine.

"Our defense really picked it up, said Vancouver coach Marc Crawford. "It was a tight-checking affair and there weren't a lot of shots on either side of the ice."

However, don't expect Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire to open things up and alter his club's style.

"The thing is you have to play well," Lemaire said. "If you don't play well, you just can't win. It's impossible. So if we play well and lose, what else do you want to do?

"That's why I'm focusing more on trying to play as well as we can. We're not one of the top teams in the league. If it's been three, four years in a row that we've been in the playoffs, then it's different. Then we have to focus on winning more than trying to play well."

Game 5 of the series will be played Monday night at GM Place in Vancouver.

Cheers,
Aquaman
 

Cfour

Golden Member
Jul 6, 2000
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www.sternie.com
Good luck tonight Vancouver.. you'll need it. :D
Should be a great game, probably end 3-2 again, or at least be a 1 goal game. I say less penalties this time around, let the freaking teams play!

GO WILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :beer:
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,240
5,810
126
Originally posted by: Cfour
Good luck tonight Vancouver.. you'll need it. :D
Should be a great game, probably end 3-2 again, or at least be a 1 goal game. I say less penalties this time around, let the freaking teams play!

GO WILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :beer:

I'll be going Wild, as I watch the Canucks go on to victory!! :)

Go Canucks Go!
 

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
0
Originally posted by: Cfour
Good luck tonight Vancouver.. you'll need it. :D
Should be a great game, probably end 3-2 again, or at least be a 1 goal game. I say less penalties this time around, let the freaking teams play!

GO WILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :beer:

I must say that the Wild Fans are quite nice :D I saw on some other boards.......... a lot of Canucks fans are really nasty. Almost as bad as rabid Leaf fans ;) When it all comes down to it ........... it's just a game.

Cheers,
Aquaman
 

Mucman

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
7,246
1
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Originally posted by: Aquaman
Originally posted by: Cfour
Good luck tonight Vancouver.. you'll need it. :D
Should be a great game, probably end 3-2 again, or at least be a 1 goal game. I say less penalties this time around, let the freaking teams play!

GO WILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :beer:

I must say that the Wild Fans are quite nice :D I saw on some other boards.......... a lot of Canucks fans are really nasty. Almost as bad as rabid Leaf fans ;) When it all comes down to it ........... it's just a game.

Cheers,
Aquaman

Most fanatic fans are dingbats :). I love the ones that come in to work the next day depressed because their favorite team lost :)
 

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
0
Originally posted by: Mucman
Originally posted by: Aquaman
Originally posted by: Cfour
Good luck tonight Vancouver.. you'll need it. :D
Should be a great game, probably end 3-2 again, or at least be a 1 goal game. I say less penalties this time around, let the freaking teams play!

GO WILD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :beer:

I must say that the Wild Fans are quite nice :D I saw on some other boards.......... a lot of Canucks fans are really nasty. Almost as bad as rabid Leaf fans ;) When it all comes down to it ........... it's just a game.

Cheers,
Aquaman

Most fanatic fans are dingbats :). I love the ones that come in to work the next day depressed because their favorite team lost :)


Ha ha ha......... my frriend (a die hard Canucks fan) lives in Toronto and whenever the Leafs are knocked out of the playoffs he has to fain sympathy for his fellow co-workers who are Leafs fans & thinks he is one also. :D

ps. Did you see that fat bald loser of a TB fan in game 4 of the NJ/TB series yelling frrom behind Broduer that "You suck....... you are not going to WIn" .......... ha ha ha made my day when Tb lost ;)

Cheers,
Aquaman
 

sandorski

No Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
70,240
5,810
126
hehe, CBC news(Vancouver) just did a story on Canucks fans. Kinda makes me wish I was in Vancouver at this time. :(
 

silverpig

Lifer
Jul 29, 2001
27,703
11
81
Originally posted by: sandorski
hehe, CBC news(Vancouver) just did a story on Canucks fans. Kinda makes me wish I was in Vancouver at this time. :(

Yeah? What did they say? It's pretty crazy here... been like that all season. Where else do they have spontaneous parades downtown until 2 am after winning game 1 of round 2 of the playoffs? :)
 

Aquaman

Lifer
Dec 17, 1999
25,054
13
0
Sopel's OT winner tames Wild

Canadian Press
5/3/2003

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - The Vancouver Canucks are one game from advancing to the Western Conference finals after the Minnesota Wild again let a late lead slip away.

Brent Sopel sent a slap shot under Manny Fernandez's glove on an extended power play with 4:08 left in overtime to give the Canucks a 3-2 victory over the Wild on Friday night.

Vancouver leads the series 3-1 and will play Game 5 of the second-round series at home Monday.

"We have an opportunity to close things out," defenceman Ed Jovanovski said. "You've got to find it in your psyche somewhere to bring your best game."

Marian Gaborik scored twice for the Wild, who are 1-4 at home in the post-season.

"It seems like that one little play is just not happening right now," said center Wes Walz, whose team lost in overtime for the second time this series.

Filip Kuba was assessed a major penalty for hitting Todd Bertuzzi in the eye with his stick, giving the Canucks a four-minute power play midway through the extra period.

Darby Hendrickson forced Jovanovski into a turnover, but his breakaway shot was stopped by Dan Cloutier.

With 18 seconds left on the man advantage, Sopel took a pass from Markus Naslund, wound up for a shot and sent the puck past Fernandez.

The Wild's Nick Schultz slammed his stick in half on the net in frustration as fans threw bottles and cups onto the ice while the Canucks scurried off with the victory.

"Obviously, you're fortunate to get a power play in overtime," Sopel said.

Minnesota wasn't happy at all.

"I don't know what you want me to say about it," Walz said. "I can't afford any fines."

The Wild trailed Colorado in the first round 3-1 before winning the last three games, but no team in NHL history has overcome a 3-1 series deficit twice in one post-season.

"They're down 3-1, but look what they did against Colorado," Sopel said. "They're a great team, they work hard ... we just have to stick to our systems and take it shift by shift."

Gaborik answered Matt Cooke's goal with the go-ahead score 65 seconds later in an early third-period flurry, but Jovanovski scored his sixth goal of the playoffs with 2:06 left in regulation to tie it at 2.

Eighty-nine seconds earlier, Todd Bertuzzi slammed Minnesota's Willie Mitchell into the dasher board and got a penalty, but Andrei Zyuzin was called for hooking 43 seconds later to negate the power play.

Jovanovski then scored his sixth goal of playoffs on the 4-on-4, tipping in Sopel's slap shot with 2:06 left.

Wild coach Jacques Lemaire, biting his tongue, was angry with the call on Zyuzin.

"There was only one reason they tied the game up," he said. "You guys saw the game. I can't comment on it. That's why this game gets so frustrating some times."

Fernandez, who made 27 saves, started for the first time since giving up four goals in Game 1 - including the tying score by Cooke with 1.2 left in regulation in that overtime loss.

Cloutier made 25 saves for Vancouver, which has won six of seven since trailing its first-round series with St. Louis 3-1.

Gaborik has eight goals in 11 playoff games for the Wild, who continued to keep the Canucks' top line of Brendan Morrison, Naslund and Bertuzzi quiet.

The trio helped Vancouver to a league-best 264 goals during the regular season, but they've got only nine points between them in this series.

The Canucks, who had only 13 shots on goal in a 3-2 win in Game 3, cranked up their attack for the final few minutes of the first period and took the lead on Gaborik's goal with 37.1 seconds remaining.

Gaborik, 21, became Minnesota's first All-Star but had only four of his 30 regular-season goals in the second half. He's turned it on in the playoffs, though, notching 11 points on the Wild's last 14 goals.

The Canucks tied it early in the third when Trevor Letowski threaded a pass past Sergei Zholtok to Cooke, who scored with 17:51 left and was booed almost immediately.

Cooke slashed Minnesota's Matt Johnson in the scuffle on the ice following Game 2.

Gaborik didn't give the Canucks any time to enjoy the goal, though, scoring 1:05 later on a nifty two-on-one pass from Wes Walz.

Walz and Gaborik have hooked up four times this series, and the linemates are the top-scoring duo in the playoffs with 13 goals between them. Notes: Vancouver's last trip to the conference finals was 1994, when it beat Toronto 4-1 and lost in seven games to the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup Finals. ... Mitchell fell to the ice after the hit by Bertuzzi and left hunched over in pain, clutching his right arm. Lemaire said he didn't know how serious it was, and a team spokesman said Mitchell was day-to-day. ... Commissioner Gary Bettman was among the overflow sellout crowd of 19,386. ... Gaborik has as many goals in the playoffs as he did in the final 45 games of the regular season. ... Wild D Antti Laaksonen was a healthy scratch. Laaksonen, an original member of the three-year-old Wild franchise, had never missed a game with the team before Friday.

Cheers,
Aquaman
 
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