The Vancouver Canucks skated to a 3-2 win in overtime of Game 2 in the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday night.
Alexandre Burrows ended the contest 11 seconds into extra period, scoring his second goal of the game and giving the Canucks a 2-0 lead in the series with Game 3 slated for Monday in Boston.
Burrows drove to the net, but was forced to go behind it. He corralled the puck and completed the wraparound into an empty net sealing the Canucks second straight thrilling victory in this year's Stanley Cup Final.
"Going into overtime you know anything can happen," explained Burrows after his three-point night. "Henrik Sedin won the faceoff. [Thomas] likes to challenge. I knew if I shot it he would stop it. Luckily I was able to get it in on the wrap-around."
"As I said after Game 1, a loss is a loss," said Bruins netminder Tim Thomas, who stopped 30 of the 33 shots he faced. "It doesn't matter whether it's 5-0 or the way that we lost. Losing stinks no matter what."
The Canucks carried the play right from the opening shift in the first period and capitalized on their only power play opportunity of the period to take a 1-0 lead.
Midway through the frame, Zdeno Chara hauled down Ryan Kesler to allow the vaunted Canucks power play to take the ice. Late in the penalty, Burrows let go a wrist shot from a bad angle that squeaked past Thomas in the Boston net.
It was a different story in the second period as the Bruins started to dictate the play, which forced the Canucks into penalty trouble. However, Roberto Luongo was solid, making 28 saves on the night, and coming up with some of his biggest stops in the middle frame.
After Kevin Bieksa was assessed a delay of game penalty, Mark Recchi had a chance in close but Luongo slid across and covered the puck near the goal line. Minutes later, he stopped David Krejci on a one-timer from the face-off dot.
Milan Lucic finally found the back of the net, scoring the Bruins' first goal of the Stanley Cup Final in the second period of Game 2. Lucic pounced on a rebound in front of Luongo, fought off Christian Ehrhoff and put the puck under Luongo's outstretched leg.
The Bruins gained momentum from the goal and caused the Canucks to take a penalty just minutes later. Mark Recchi tipped in a point shot from Chara to give the Bruins a rare power play marker. With the goal, Recchi became the oldest player to score in the Stanley Cup Final, surpassing Igor Larionov.
Thomas then robbed Jannik Hansen from point blank range to maintain the Bruins' momentum and silence the crowd. Then, Michael Ryder got his stick in front of Jeff Tambellini, as the Canucks forward tried to sweep the puck into a yawning cage. Thomas made Daniel Sedin his next victim with a good stop from in close to keep the Bruins in front.
The Bruins started the third period on the power play but that was negated when Dennis Seidenberg tripped up Maxim Lapierre.
A few minutes into the period, Bieksa was felled by a slash from Rich Peverley and lay prone on the ice as the home fans held their collective breath. Bieksa got back to his feet, made his way to the bench without assistance and returned to action shortly after.
With time beginning to become a factor, Daniel Sedin put the Canucks back on even terms. After a TV timeout that allowed the Sedin line to play two straight shifts, Burrows stopped a shot in the slot and shoveled the puck over to Sedin, who had an empty net to shoot at and made no mistake.
The Canucks finished off regulation with a flurry but could not repeat their last-minute heroics of Game 1. However, when overtime arrived Burrows didn't waste any time, ending it in the opening seconds.
On the injury front, Canucks centre Manny Malhotra, who has been out since March 16 with an eye injury, returned to the lineup while defenceman Dan Hamhuis was out with an undisclosed injury suffered in Game 1. Andrew Alberts took Hamhuis' spot in the lineup.
