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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Game 7 is heaven

Nothing better than winner-take-Cup tilt

Greg Beacham Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The past two weeks are likely to be a vivid blur in the memories of Tim Thomas, Roberto Luongo and the players who staggered off their final cross-continent flights Tuesday to put a merciful end to the Stanley Cup finals.

The Vancouver Canucks have traded home victories of increasing intensity with the Boston Bruins for six games, with their veteran goalies dueling before a backdrop of bites, taunts, dangerous injuries and gut-wrenching road losses. The Presidents’ Trophy-winning Canucks and the profoundly resilient Bruins will play their 107th and final game when their draining seasons finally end in Game 7 tonight.

Both teams are ready to enjoy their drastically shortened summers, but nobody can bear the thought of coming this far without drinking from the Stanley Cup.

“Everything in the past is in the past,” Vancouver center Ryan Kesler said. “If we win tomorrow, we become legends.”

Although they’ve lost three of their last four to the surging Bruins, the Canucks are ready to reap their reward for grinding out the NHL’s best regular-season record. They get to play Game 7 at home – and home-ice advantage means more than anybody expected in a series that’s otherwise been utterly unpredictable.

The home team has won every game to date, but Boston has done it better than the favored Canucks. While the Bruins blew out Vancouver by a combined 17-3, the Canucks eked out three one-goal victories.

The Canucks still can win their first NHL title after flopping in their first attempt Monday in Boston, while the Bruins are closing strong in their attempt to end a 39-year Stanley Cup drought.

“When we’re in the garage or driveway playing as a kid and you’re fantasizing … you’re saying to yourself, ‘Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals,’ ” said Thomas, the likely Conn Smythe Trophy winner after allowing just eight Vancouver goals in six games. “You’re not saying Game 6, you know? So this is really what every kid dreams about.”

Thomas and the Bruins will attempt to become the first team in NHL history to win a Game 7 three times in the same postseason after beating Montreal and Tampa Bay earlier. The Original Six franchise has never played a Game 7 in the finals, not even while losing its last five trips to the title round since 1972.

Vancouver was stretched to the limit by defending champion Chicago in the first round. The Canucks were here in 1994, when Mark Messier’s New York Rangers beat them 3-2 in Game 7 – and Vancouver hadn’t been back to the finals since.

Both teams have played under playoff stress this spring, but no pressure in hockey can match the intensity of a close third period in Game 7 of the finals, when one superb play or a single mistake can change a player’s reputation forever.

“This is playoff hockey at its finest,” Vancouver center Manny Malhotra said.