Canucks wear down Sharks, strike first with 3-2 Game 1 victory period, around, during, really, scores

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Canucks wear down Sharks, strike first with 3-2 Game 1 victory
Henrik Sedin sets up tying goal, scores winner for Vancouver



VANCOUVER — Officially, it will go into the books as a third-period comeback win for the Vancouver Canucks.


But really, its seeds were sown late in the second period when the Canucks buzzed all around San Jose goalie Antti Niemi for what seemed like an eternity.


They didn't score during one of the longest goal-mouth scrambles you'll ever see, but the game changed right there. When it was over, the Canucks had a 3-2 win in the opener of the Western Conference final and the Sharks were exhausted.


"That was the momentum-changer, the frantic flurry if you will with about three minutes left in the second," said San Jose coach Todd McLellan. "They were coming pretty hard at that point and we wanted to get into the locker room and recover a little bit.


"But we didn't have it in the third. I thought our team looked tired, I thought we looked very sluggish."


The Canucks were anything but as they got goals 1:19 apart from Kevin Bieksa and Henrik Sedin to register the come-from-behind win.


"There's nights when we lose our legs, but our minds are still pretty sharp," McLellan added. "I didn't think that was the case tonight. It started between the ears and worked all the way through the body. We were like dogs chasing cars on the freeway. We just weren't catching anybody."


The Sharks, who clearly were feeling the effects of a tough, seven-game series with the Detroit Red Wings, at least have a couple of days to recover. Game 2 of this series does not go until Wednesday night at Rogers Arena (6 p.m., CBC, Team 1040).


What had to be troublesome from a San Jose perspective, and very encouraging for the Canucks, was the re-emergence of Vancouver's top line after a disappointing second-round series against Nashville.


Captain Henrik Sedin was especially brilliant, scoring the winner on a Vancouver power play shortly after he helped set up Bieksa's tying goal.


The twins and linemate Alex Burrows had lots of jump all night.


"When the twins get going like that they are almost unstoppable," Bieksa said. "They are generating every shift it seems like … they could have had three or four tonight the way they were going."

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Daniel Sedin, who did not have a point but registered a game-high six shots, said he and his brother never lost confidence despite their second-round struggles.


"During the playoffs it's going to be up and down," he said. "You are going to have games where you are not as crisp as you want to be. But you try and stick with it and today I thought we played probably our best game of the playoffs. We had the puck more in their offensive zone and created a lot more from those kind of shifts. It was a good confidence boost for us."


The Sharks had a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes on goals by Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau that sandwiched one by Vancouver centre Maxim Lapierre.


Bieksa tied the game at 7:02 of the third when he converted a cross-ice pass from Burrows and beat Niemi from the right faceoff circle. Henrik earned the second assist on the goal.


"I just kind of came late in the play and Burr, with the great vision that he has, saw me and I put it on net," Bieksa said of his second goal of the playoffs.


Just 32 seconds after Bieksa's goal, Sharks winger Dany Heatley was nailed with a minor penalty for an elbow on Raffi Torres and the Vancouver power play finally shook off some serious home-ice doldrums.


The Canucks had gone 0-for-18 on the power play at Rogers Arena since last scoring in Game 2 of the Chicago series. But Henrik changed that when he converted a pass from defenceman Christian Ehrhoff and calmly put a backhand shot past Niemi for his second of the post-season.


"I think our power play has been more effective on the road the whole season," said Daniel. "Hoffer made a great pass to Hank. It is obviously good for our confidence."


The only goal of the first period was unassisted, but everyone watching the game knew otherwise. Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo came out of his net and attempted to clear the puck, but ended up feeding a perfect pass to Thornton in the right faceoff circle. The Sharks captain slid a shot under the body of sprawling Canuck defenceman Dan Hamhuis and into an empty net.


The goal came at the 18:47 mark of an evenly played first period that didn't feature a lot of quality scoring chances.


The Canucks came out with lots of jump to start the second period and it paid off early. Lapierre tied the game at 1:49 when he took a pass from behind the net from Jannik Hansen and slid the puck past Niemi.


"That line played great all night, I thought," Luongo said of the Lapierre-Hansen-Torres combination. "They had the puck mostly in the offensive zone generating a lot of chances."


The Sharks got that one back on their first power-play opportunity of the game. With Mason Raymond off serving a holding penalty, Marleau tipped in a Dan Boyle point shot at the 8:44 mark. Thornton made a nice play on the side boards to get things started when he fought off a couple of Canucks and poked the puck back to Boyle.


But much the way they began the second period, the Canucks finished it with a flurry.


"I thought in the last 25 minutes we played our best hockey of the game," said Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault. "We went north-south really quickly and I thought we made their defencemen turn back and go for pucks and were able to create some turnovers off of that. That led to some time in their end and good quality time."

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Vancouver Canucks captain Henrik Sedin celebrates his third-period, game-winning goal against the San Jose Sharks with teammates in Game 1 of the NHL Western Conference final series against the visiting San Jose Sharks at Rogers Arena on Sunday. The Canucks opened the series with a 3-2 victory.



Vancouver Canucks Chris Higgins shot goes wide of San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi.



Vancover Canucks captain Henrik Sedin gets squeezed between San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi and his teammate Dany Heatley during Game 1 of the NHL Western Conference final at Rogers Arena on Sunday.




San Jose Sharks defenceman Niclas Wallin gets run into the boards by Vancouver Canucks winger Raffi Torres in the first period of Game 1 of the NHL Western Conference final at Rogers Arena on Sunday.


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