Canucks move on
To get past the first round for the second time since 1995, the Vancouver Canucks went to their Game 7 guy.
Trevor Linden scored the go-ahead goal on a power play seven minutes into the third period to lift the Canucks to a 4-1 Game 7 win on Monday night in Vancouver, B.C., ending the Dallas Stars attempt to come back from a 3-1 deficit in the best-of-7 series.
Linden, a former Canucks captain playing in his ninth career Game 7 for Vancouver, tipped Mattias Ohlund’s quick point shot through the legs of Stars goalie Marty Turco, the puck barely trickling over the goal line inside the far post.
It was the 34th playoff goal of Linden’s career, tying Pavel Bure’s franchise record. He also leads active players with 12 points in Game 7s.
Bryan Smolinski and Taylor Pyatt added empty-net goals, Henrik Sedin had a goal and an assist, and Roberto Luongo made 19 saves for the Canucks, who will start the second round in Anaheim on Wednesday night.
“Tonight, I couldn’t have done it by myself,” Luongo said. “The guys played unbelievable and that’s why we won the game.”
Turco finished with 28 saves and Mike Modano sent a shot off the post and crossbar with four minutes left as the Stars, who were forced to play Game 7 without top defenseman Sergei Zubov, exited the playoffs in the first round for a third straight season.
After being shut out by Turco for two straight games as Dallas climbed back from into the series, the Canucks battled back in Game 7.
Joel Lundqvist scored late in the first period for Dallas before Sedin finally ended Turco’s shutout streak on the power play with 4:48 left in the second period.
Turco made four fantastic saves to kill off a 5-on-3 Canucks power play early in the second before Sedin finally beat him on another power play with 4:48 left in the period, ending his career-best shutout streak at 165:45.
Sedin was alone to the left of Turco and quickly snapped in a blind cross-ice backhand pass from brother Daniel off the far boards, ending a lengthy drought for both the identical twins and the Canucks power play.
It was the first point for either Sedin since combining on the game-winner late in the fourth overtime of Game 1, and the first Vancouver power-play goal since earlier in that first game. The Canucks had failed to convert 26 straight chances and were just 1 for 31 in the series.
For a change, Turco was the busier goaltender and for a while he was ready. In addition to the 5-on-3, he stopped Sedin from the slot on another power play early in the third, and Pyatt’s shot from 20 feet shortly after.
But the trips to the penalty box continued for Dallas with two more early in the third, and Linden made the Stars pay with his sixth career Game 7 goal.
Luongo took over from there.
He’d only seen one shot in the third period – just five since the end of the first – when Linden scored. But he robbed Stu Barnes from the slot with his glove three minutes later and got two breaks late.
First, Mike Ribeiro couldn’t get the handle on a loose puck at the side of the net with Luongo sprawled, failing to jam it into an empty net before Kevin Bieksa cleared it. Then Modano’s one-timer with four minutes left hit the inside seam between the post and crossbar and ricocheted out.
Only Lundqvist beat Luongo, scoring with 3:38 left in the first period after winning a one-on-one rush with Bieksa by using him as a screen and snapping a 35-foot wrist shot past Luongo’s glove off the top of the post.
Off the ice
Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom is day-to-day with an eye injury after Calgary’s Craig Conroy hit him with his stick at 6:44 of overtime in Detroit’s 2-1 series-clinching victory over the Flames on Sunday night. … Atlanta captain Scott Mellanby is expected to announce his retirement today. … The U.S. National Team added Nashville D Ryan Suter, Minnesota F Adam Hall and St. Louis G Jason Bacashihua for the world hockey championships beginning Friday in Moscow.