Vancouver’s Stanley Cup fate lies between the pipes

VANCOUVER -- Kevin Bieksa got the primary assist on what to date is the most important goal of the Vancouver Canucks' season, maybe the most important in franchise history.
Of course, that could all change in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday in Boston, but for now Bieksa's bank shot-pass off the end boards early in the third period is the assist everybody is talking about. The puck came out to Maxim Lapierre on the left side of the net and the Canucks' third-line center shot it off

of Tim Thomas and into the net to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead that stood the rest of the way.
Bieksa explained the play that led to a win in Game 5 and his feelings now that Vancouver is 60 minutes away from winning the Stanley Cup. Here is what he had to say:
Q: Is putting the puck off the end boards and getting it to bounce out front the best way to beat Thomas when he comes that far out of his crease?
A: Obviously Burr (Alexandre Burrows) scored the big goal in Game 2 in overtime against him, a pump fake and going around. He's coming out far, so the only way to make him pay is to put pucks off the boards and hope they bounce into the slot.
Q: So, that was a set play or were you trying to shoot it?
A: I'm trying just to put it off the wall and hope it got a bounce. Obviously (I'm) not a geometry whiz, so I'm not sure exactly where but I was hoping it would bounce somewhere in front of the net. It bounced to our stick.
Q: When did you guys start talking about doing that play?
A: I can remember trying it a few times in Boston. We talked about it before the series. We have pretty good scouting crew that did a good job of giving us tips on Thomas. He's a good goalie so you have to find ways to cheat and get little advantages. That was one of them.
Q: What does this feel like, being one win away right now?
A: It feels great. We're trying to stay really focused. We've got one big game left. We'd like to go finish it there -- that'd be a great feeling. We've got two kicks left at it, but obviously we want to go finish it there.
Q: Can you talk about the way Roberto (Luongo) responded tonight after all the criticism he came under?
A: He played an unbelievable game for us, and we expected it out of him. It's no surprise. He's a big-time goalie. He's played on the big stage before and succeeded. You can't really blame him for what happened in Boston. It was the whole team that letdown in Boston. You saw the whole team regroup and come back and play strong. He led the charge.
Q: How about the success of your penalty kill tonight, the difference it made early?
A: The penalty kill was strong. The penalty kill was good in Game 4 too. That was one of the bright spots for us. We were good and we continued that tonight. We pressured them a lot and made them work for their chances. I can't remember a whole lot of great looks that they got."

Preds find a way, Canucks can't close

For the third year in a row, the Canucks followed up a Game 1 win in the second round by coming up short in Game 2 -- but this one had to hurt more than the losses to Chicago in each of the last two years. This time, they were actually just 67 seconds away from a 2-0 series lead, only to have Nashville defenseman Ryan Suter get the tying goal and Matt Halischuk scored the winner 14:51 into the second OT for a 2-1 win.

The Canucks nearly won Saturday's game despite being outshot 36-15 in regulation – then got 18 shots in less than two periods of overtime but couldn't get one Pekka Rinne.

"He was definitely their best player," said defenseman Kevin Bieksa, the victim of Rinne's best OT save. We had plenty of chances to win it in overtime and plenty of chances to go up 2-0, and he stood on his head."

Asked how he refocused for OT after seeing so few shots through 60 minutes, Rinne said simply, "you have no choice."

"It's sudden death and you try to be ready for every single situation, every single shot," he added. "It was easy to stay focused, especially in overtime, it seemed like they were shooting more, and it's always fun when that happens."

Rinne wasn't making life fun for Vancouver's shooters in OT. No doubt Bieksa left Rogers Arena wondering what happened to his game-winning goal.

Daniel Sedin put a perfect pass onto Bieksa's stick as he came in backdoor late in the first overtime. Bieksa one-timed it perfectly and was ready to celebrate – only to see the puck disappear into Rinne, who dived across to stop the shot and smother the rebound.

"Obviously, I was a little bit fortunate," Rinne said. "Sedin made a nice pass to Bieksa and I was able to get my blocker and my stick over there."

With only two goals in two games, and just 18 in nine playoff games, the Canucks need to start finding the back of the net -- quickly.

"You want to score more goals, that's the bottom line," said Henrik Sedin, who had one shot in 31:25 of ice time. "We have to bear down on the chances we get, in overtime too we had a lot of chances to finish it off. That's something we need to take a look at."

Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said his team needs more from the Sedins.

"They're our top players and obviously we need them to perform like top players," he said. "I know they're working real hard, sometimes you've got to give the opposition some credit."

The Predators got a break on the tying goal – Suter's passout from the end boards hit goalie Roberto Luongo's skate and went into the net. But Nashville looked much more like the team that beat Anaheim in the first round, rather than the one that was dominated for almost all of Game 1.

"Obviously they were disappointed about their first game. We knew they were going to come out hard," Vigneault said. "At the end of the day though, I'm more disappointed about how we played. Obviously I'm giving them credit, but I know we can play better than we did tonight."

With the series now headed to Nashville for Games 3 and 4, the Canucks had better step up their game. With the Predators in the second round for the first time in franchise history, Bridgestone Arena will be rocking like never before on Tuesday night – especially after the Preds' got a split in Vancouver.

"We can build off of that goal in overtime, go home and use our crowd," captain Shea Weber said. "That's a very good team over there and it's not going to be a short series by any means. It's going to be a marathon, not a sprint."

Halischuk, who was playing in just his eighth NHL playoff game, knows the importance of the Game 2 win.

"Game 1 was a wakeup call, we came out hard today and had a good 60 minutes to get us to overtime and just kind of went from there," he said. "I think we'll try to take the momentum back home, for sure."