Canucks shut out Bruins 1-0, one win away from first Stanley Cup
The Vancouver Canucks are so close they can almost taste that champagne they hope to sip from the Stanley Cup.
It could happen as soon as Monday night when the Canucks will have a chance to finish off the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden, end four decades of frustration and hoist that elusive silver chalice toward the heavens.
The Canucks rebounded beautifully from a couple of ugly games in Boston, getting a goal from Maxim Lapierre at 4:35 of the third period and shutout goaltending from Roberto Luongo to beat the Bruins 1-0 Friday night at Rogers Arena and grab a 3-2 series lead.
Monday’s game will mark just the second time the Canucks have played in a game with a chance to win the Cup. They lost Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup final 3-2 to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
“It feels great,” said defenceman Kevin Bieksa, who banked a shot off the end boards to set up Lapierre’s goal. “We’re trying to stay really focused. We have one big game left. We’d like to go finish it there. That would be a great feeling. We get two kicks at it, but obviously we’d like to finish it the next game.”
That next game goes at 5 p.m. PDT Monday (CBC, Team 1040), when pretty much the entire province will shut down hoping to see the Canucks make history. Game 7, if necessary, would go 5 p.m. Wednesday at Rogers Arena.
The Canucks were a much different team than the one that lost Games 3 and 4 in Boston by a combined score of 12-1. Luongo bounced back wonderfully from two rough outings in Boston and for most of the night it was a goaltending duel between him and Tim Thomas. Luongo stopped 31 shots to register his fourth shutout of the playoffs. The other three all came in Game 1s. None were as big as this one.