Last Updated on June 5, 2011 12:04 am by admin
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) – Down but never out, the Canucks are owning the third period in the Stanley Cup finals.
After outshooting Boston in the third period and scoring the winning goal with 18.5 seconds left in Game 1, the Canucks came back from a one-goal deficit on Saturday night with an 11-5 edge in shots and netted the tying goal in the period en route to a victory.
The late dominance didn’t stop in the third period as Alex Burrows added the winner 11 seconds into overtime to give the Canucks a 3-2 win and a 2-0 series lead over the Bruins.
“We’re not a team that panics,” Vancouver center Ryan Kesler said. “We’re a team that bears down.”
The Canucks might be a team that’s wearing down the Bruins, especially 6-foot-9 defenseman Zdeno Chara. The Norris Trophy finalist was in the penalty box for the Canucks’ first goal and on the ice for the final two, losing the puck to Daniel Sedin on the first before losing a race around the net with Burrows on the winner.
“We hope so,” Sedin said when asked if the Canucks are weakening Chara. “It’s not easy to play in the playoffs, especially if you are getting up to 30 minutes a night and playing hard minutes.”
Boston coach Claude Julien admitted moving Chara away from his new net-front role on the Bruins’ power play had something to do with not wearing out his big defenseman.
But it’s not like Boston is the first team the Canucks have pulled away from late in games. Vancouver outscored opponents 100-58 in the third period during the regular season and 24-18 in the playoffs, including a 4-2 record in overtime.
That’s how they won the West, with Kesler tying Game 5 of the conference finals with 13 seconds left before defenseman Kevin Bieksa eliminated San Jose with the double-overtime winner.
“We’ve taken over games in the third,” Daniel Sedin said. “We play an up-tempo style, we get pucks in, we hit them hard and we have a good forecheck, so it’s tough to play against us. A lot of times that’s tougher than having a guy hitting you.”
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TOMAS’ TURN: Tomas Kaberle never got to the Stanley Cup finals while playing the previous 11 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The new Bruins defenseman thinks the experience was worth the wait, even if he had to move to Boston at the trade deadline to get there.
“I thought the atmosphere was awesome,” Kaberle said Saturday before Game 2. “You can feel it even the night before the game. It’s a great experience. You can compare it to pretty much like Olympic hockey games. Similar style. That’s really a good atmosphere.”
Kaberle scored 520 points and made four All-Star teams with the frequently woeful Maple Leafs. He’s not under pressure to be a star shutdown defenseman with the Bruins, who have Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg for that job.
The 33-year-old Kaberle is focused on enjoying Boston’s run, thanks to advice from his older brother, Frantisek Kaberle, who won a Stanley Cup title with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.
“We always talk on the phone and stuff,” Kaberle said of his brother, who plays in their native Czech Republic. “He knows what we are going through. He said, ‘Just make the most of it.”’
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FLUSH FRENZY: A citywide postgame street party with more than 40,000 Canucks fans wasn’t the only thing Vancouver was preparing for going into Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals on Saturday night.
The city was also getting ready for an influx of toilet flushes following collective bathroom breaks between periods and after Game 1 on Wednesday, according to the Vancouver Police Department.
The break caused the region’s water pressure to drop from peaks over 450 PSI while the game was on, down to 385 PSI after Raffi Torres scored with 18.5 seconds left in a 1-0 win, with smaller drop-offs between periods. To prepare for the frenzy of flushes, city engineers open valves and start pumps.
As for celebrations downtown, the Vancouver Police pegged the Game 1 crowd at 40,000 – and that was on a cold, overcast Wednesday.
With the sun shining before the only Saturday night game of the finals, the city was preparing for much larger crowds after Game 2, with an added presence from both the police and fire departments to ensure venues aren’t overcrowded. The police estimate a $1 million cost for extra enforcement, along with running two downtown fan zones.
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SEGUIN SLOWED: Tyler Seguin’s playoff breakout appears to have fizzled out.
After being scratched for Boston’s first 11 postseason games, Seguin had three goals and three assists in his first two games in the Eastern Conference finals, including a virtuoso four-point Game 2 performance to beat Tampa Bay.
Since then, the 19-year-old Seguin hasn’t scored in seven games. His ice time dropped to 6:21 in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals.
The No. 2 overall pick in last summer’s draft played 8:46 in Game 2, but mostly early on. Boston coach Claude Julien still doesn’t appear to trust his youngest player in big situations, although he appeared to be using Seguin in an attempt to generate some offense from the Bruins, who have scored in just one of the series’ six-plus periods.
“You feel less involved,” Seguin said before the game. “Whether it’s trying to finish a check your first few seconds out there or try to make a play, you’ve got to find a way to get yourself in the game. It’s something I’m coping with.”
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NOTES: Teams winning Game 2 of the finals have won the Stanley Cup in 54 of 71 seasons since the NHL went to a best-of-seven format. … In Game 1, Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo and Boston’s Tim Thomas combined for the best save percentage (.986) in a Stanley Cup finals game since June 5, 2000, when Martin Brodeur and Ed Belfour stopped 88 of 89 shots (.989) in Dallas’ triple-overtime win in Game 5. … Julien confirmed F Marc Savard didn’t travel to Vancouver with the Bruins. Savard has been out since February with his second concussion in less than a year. Julien said he encouraged Savard, who is home in Ontario, to rejoin the club back in Boston for the next two games. Savard was with the team for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against Tampa Bay. “Maybe I’ll put a little pressure on him to get back there,” Julien said. “It was good for him, and it was also good for his teammates to see him.”