Beaten by Brent

Sopel's OT goal gives Canucks 3-1 series lead on Wild

Brent Sopel (right) gave the Canucks a two-game lead with his second goal of the playoffs. AP

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," defenseman 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 postseason.

"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 double minor 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 postseason.

"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 3-year-old Wild franchise, had never missed a game with the team before Friday.

 

Related information

Stories

Three Stars: Sopel is Friday's second star Wild hope to reverse recent home struggles in Game 4 Canucks take page from Wild playbook with slowdown style 2003 NHL Playoffs Second-Round Series Capsules 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs Second-Round Matchups 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily Schedule

Stats

Canucks-Wild Box Score

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video