Vancouver Canucks' Christian Ehrhoff, left, of Germany, and Alex Burrows celebrate burrows' goal against the Chicago Blackhawks during the first period of game 7 of an NHL Western Conference quarterfinal Stanley Cup playoff hockey series in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday April 26, 2011.DARRYL DYCK
The Stanley Cup favourites are alive, and the defending champions are done.
The Vancouver Canucks scared all of British Columbia over the last week, but emerged with a 2-1 overtime victory over the arch-rival Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 of their Western Conference quarter-final Tuesday.
The win moves Vancouver into the second round of the NHL playoffs, and into a conference semi-final series against the Nashville Predators, while setting up a Clash of the Titans between the Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks in the other western semi. The Vancouver-Nashville series reportedly starts Thursday at Rogers Arena.
Alex Burrows played the role of hero, scoring both goals, including the winner some five minutes into the extra session after a turnover from Chicago defenceman Chris Campoli. He rifled a puck past Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford, which precipitated a dog pile of Canucks players by the team bench.
Burrows said he felt relieved because his teammates were able to kill off his holding penalty early in overtime, and admitted that he personally thanked goaltender Roberto Luongo for a point-blank stop on Patrick Sharp that saved the series.
"We told ourselves that tonight was our night," Burrows said of the talk in the Canucks dressing room between the third period and overtime. "We were in a great spot, and this is where legends are born, that's how we tried to motivate ourselves."
Rogers Arena erupted upon the winner, hitting decibel levels that had not been reached since the 2010 Olympic gold-medal game, when Canada's Sidney Crosby scored an overtime winner that sent the country into celebration.
On Tuesday, it was B.C.'s turn to go crazy.
The festivities erupted outside of arena just seconds after the game-winning goal. Horns honked from all directions, and fans hooted and hollered after a sweet victory over Chicago that was a long time coming.
"We're going to celebrate tonight because this was a huge obstacle to overcome," said team chairman Francesco Aquilini, whose family owns the club. "This was really huge for the City of Vancouver."
Vancouver had the game all but won with two minutes remaining and Chicago's Duncan Keith in the penalty box when Jonathan Toews - the most clutch player in hockey - finally scored his first goal of the series. He picked Kesler's pocket in the neutral zone, drove hard to the net, and finished off a Marian Hossa rebound from his knees. Pure guts and heart from the Hawks captain.
"That's why he won the Conn Smythe [and]the MVP of the Olympics," Luongo said of his former Team Canada teammate. "It was a massive play by him shorthanded and that's why he's the leader of that team."
Luongo, benched in Game 6 and pulled from two his last two starts, earned some redemption with a 31-save performance, while Ryan Kesler and Burrows joined their teammate on the redemption train. Luongo acknowledged that the best thing to happen to him was relief duty in the third period and overtime of Game 6, won 4-3 by the Hawks, after starter Cory Schneider left the game with leg cramps.
But as well as Luongo played, the best goaltender on the ice was Crawford, the Chicago rookie who singlehandedly kept his team in the game for the better part of two periods. Crawford's third-period glove save on Kesler was one for the ages. He also stoned Burrows on a penalty shot just 21 seconds into the final stanza, and finished with 36 stops.
The Canucks avoided becoming just the fourth team in league history to waste a 3-0 lead and lose a best-of-seven series. Dropping the series would have been disastrous for the franchise, and many speculated that it would have led to the dismissal of head coach Alain Vigneault, and changes to the team's cast of stars.
But Aquilini squashed those notions, and said he would not have made any management changes had his team lost.
"No, I don't think so," he said. "It's a learning process and every year we continually got better."
The Canucks had lost playoff series to Chicago in consecutive years, and a third in a row would have been too much for a desperate fan base to take, particularly after a glorious regular season in which Vancouver won the Presidents' Trophy as the league's No. 1 team.
"If we don't go down 3-0, this series is ours," Hawks winger Troy Brouwer said.
The Canucks channeled and sustained an electric pre-game atmosphere with an early goal from Burrows. More importantly, it was the first sign that slumping Kesler came to play.
"I wanted this game more than anything in my life," Kesler said. " Burrows had just one assist through the first five games, before a three-point effort Sunday, while Kesler went into Tuesday's game searching for his first goal of the postseason. Kesler didn't score, but his offence arrived in the form of a wouldn't-be-stopped rush to the net.
After a fantastic outlet pass from Christian Ehrhoff - a spinning, tape-to-tape feed that travelled two zones - to Mason Raymond, Kesler took the puck and bulled his way around defenceman Duncan Keith. He slid the puck cleanly to a wide-open Burrows, who finished into a wide-open net less than three minutes into the game.
The home side continued to dominate play in the middle stanza, and would have extended its lead if not for the exceptional goaltending of young Crawford. The Hawks backstop made some key saves, particularly during a shift when Vancouver's third line hemmed the visitors in their own end.
The unit of Maxim Lapierre, Jannik Hansen and Chris Higgins was fantastic all night, matching the excellence of Kesler with Burrows and Mason Raymond. The Canucks penalty killer also pulled their weight in the second. They easily wiped out a tripping penalty to Hansen, and even got some shorthanded chances from Raymond and Burrows.
"I knew the guys would go out there and bust a gut," Vigneault said. "Obviously it's a good feeling, but we didn't get into the playoff to go one round."