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ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- It's an old script, but the Minnesota Wild have got it down pretty good. The Wild forced a decisive seventh game in their Western Conference semifinal series as Andrew Brunette scored two of their three power-play goals in a 5-1 victory over Vancouver Canucks. Minnesota is on the verge of duplicating its feat in the conference quarterfinals when it rallied from a three games to one deficit to eliminate the highly favored Colorado Avalanche. Like the opening round, the Wild will play Game Seven just 24 hours later, this time at Vancouver's GM Place. They are trying to become the first team in NHL history to overcome 3-1 deficits twice in the same postseason. "We can't think about what's happened in the past," Minnesota left wing Antti Laaksonen said. "It's 0-0. We've got one game coming up. You can't think about the fact that it's never been done before." The Canucks also overcame a three games to one deficit in the opening round against St. Louis. On Thursday, however, they must bounce back from consecutive blowout defeats. "The score doesn't indicate what your confidence is like. We're a confident group and we've got to be confident," Vancouver left wing Todd Bertuzzi said. "We've played a Game Seven in our home and we've played extremely well at home, so we need to go back, regroup ourselves and start over." After scoring 10 goals in the first four games of the series, Minnesota has totaled 12 in the last two. The Wild were 3-for-5 with the extra man, grabbing the lead in the second period on power-play tallies by Brunette and defenseman Lubomir Sekeras. Laaksonen collected a goal and an assist before Brunette struck again on the power play with 9:23 remaining. Defenseman Ed Jovanovski had the lone goal for the Canucks, whose forwards have been outscored, 20-8, in the series. Linemates Bertuzzi and Markus Naslund combined for 94 goals during the season but have just one in the series - none in the last five games. "I need to keep working hard, keep doing the little things, keep finishing my hits, keep standing in front of the net," Bertuzzi said. Vancouver dominated the first 12 1/2 minutes of the game, outshooting Minnesota, 10-1. While killing a penalty, Jovanovski centered for fellow defenseman Murray Baron, who flicked a shot past goaltender Dwayne Roloson. But it came seconds after the Canucks were ruled offside. "The first period, we took the majority of the play, we were in their zone the whole time and got shots and their goalie made some big saves," Bertuzzi said. The Wild grabbed the lead for good on their second power play. Dan Cloutier got his glove on Marian Gaborik's wrister from the top of the left faceoff circle, but the rebound came to Brunette, who shot it over the goalie's left pad. Minnesota also converted its third power play, taking a 2-0 lead on Sekeras' goal with five seconds left on Trevor Linden's high-sticking penalty. Sekeras got a feed from Gaborik at the top of the slot and fired a slap shot over a sliding Jarkko Ruutu and past a screened Cloutier. "They got a couple of power-play goals, we got behind and it's tough to play from behind against that team," Linden said. Darby Hendrickson made it 3-0 at 6:57 of the third period with his first career playoff goal. Laaksonen had the puck along the left boards and backhanded it to the right circle, where Hendrickson whipped a one-timer past Cloutier. Jovanovski spoiled Roloson's shutout bid two minutes later with his fifth goal of the series, tying the playoff record for defensemen shared by Denis Potvin, Al MacInnis and Brian Leetch. But Laaksonen needed just 28 seconds to restore Vancouver's three-goal lead when he got a pass from Cliff Ronning, broke in alone and waited for Cloutier to go down before netting his first career playoff goal. The Canucks bench protested, arguing the play was offside. But replays showed Laaksonen straddled the blue line as Ronning crossed it. Brunette capped the scoring 72 seconds later, giving him three goals in the last two games. "I don't know if my game has come alive," Brunette said. "I think I've played pretty well all series and tonight got a couple of nice bounces - a nice rebound early and a deflection off someone's skate late." Cloutier did not meet the media after allowing five goals on 23 shots. He was outplayed by Roloson, who made 30 saves. |
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