Canucks shut out Bruins 1-0, one gallery, Boston, photo, close

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Canucks shut out Bruins 1-0, one win away from first Stanley Cup
Vancouver gets perfect goaltending from Roberto Luongo, will take 3-2 series lead back to Boston


For Game 5 fans photo gallery, click here.


VANCOUVER — 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.

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Under the microscope after surrendering a dozen goals in Boston, Luongo prepared for Friday night's game the same way he did for Game 7 of the first-round series against Chicago. He went for a solitary walk on the Stanley Park seawall.


"I don't know if they have any seawalls in Boston, but I'm going to look for that," he said. "I put my hoody on and my headphones, and I don't know if anybody said anything (to me). I can't hear. But I just focus on the journey and everything I need to do to be ready for the game and that's what gets me prepared."


Lapierre scored when Bieksa's shot from the right point intentionally sailed wide, bounced off the end boards and out around the other side where the Canuck centre was positioned. He snapped a quick shot that just barely trickled by Thomas and the fans at Rogers Arena, and undoubtedly all around the province, went crazy.


"I'm just trying to put it off the wall and hope it gets a bounce," Bieksa said. "Obviously, I'm not a geometry whiz so I didn't know exactly where, but I was hoping it would bounce somewhere near the front of the net. Behind the net, in front of the net, who cares. It bounced to our guy."


"I just think I'm lucky I had the chance to come play for this team," said Lapierre, who was acquired at the trade deadline.


Luongo drew laughter in his post-game media session when he was asked how difficult those bank shots off the end boards are for a goaltender.


"It's not hard if you're playing in the paint," Luongo said. "It's an easy save for me, but if you're wandering out and aggressive like he (Thomas) is, that's going to happen. He might make some saves that I won't, but in a case like that, we want to take advantage of a bounce like that and make sure we're in a good position to bury those."


Before Lapierre's goal, Thomas had kept Vancouver off the scoresheet for a stretch of 110 minutes and 42 seconds.


"It was a great hockey game," said Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault. "They weren't giving up anything. And the puck got across the line by a couple of inches. That's the game."

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The Bruins now head back home hoping they can duplicate some of that Game 3 and 4 magic and force a seventh game.


"We've been through this, I don't know how many times, so it's not something that's new to us," said Boston coach Claude Julien. "We've had to regroup all year. I don't think we're a team that's done anything the easy way, so in certain ways, it's not a surprising that we're here in this situation where we got to bring our team back home and create a Game 7.


"Two of the last three rounds we have been through seven-game series, so our goal right now is to create another one."


Luongo said he has learned in his five years of fishbowl existence in Vancouver to block out the kind of criticism he received after the previous two games in Boston.


"The only thing I have to prove things to is myself, my teammates and my family and friends," he said. "That's who I play for. I play the game because I love it and I want to win the Stanley Cup. So that's the only motivation I need right now.


"I try to block everything else out. Sometimes it's hard to do in a city like this. You can't let those things affect you because then they will affect your game."


The Canucks won despite a power play that continues to sputter and without an offensive contribution from their first and second lines. The Vancouver power play is now 1-for-25 in this series and the Sedin twins have combined for just two points, both by Daniel. Centre Ryan Kesler has just one point in the series and the Canucks have been outscored in the series 14-6.


But they have an opportunity to win the Stanley Cup on Monday night. That is all that matters.

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Maxim Lapierre of the Vancouver Canucks celebrates his third-period goal in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final Friday at Rogers Arena.


Maxim Lapierre #40 of the Vancouver Canucks celebrates with Alexander Edler #23, Manny Malhotra #27 and Kevin Bieksa #3 after scoring Friday night against Boston Bruins at Rogers Arena.



Vancouver Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo makes a save while teammate Christian Ehrhoff tries to fend off Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand during Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final Friday at Rogers Arena.

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Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas makes a save on Vancouver Canucks winger Mason Raymond during the first period of Game 5 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Arena on Friday.



Sami Salo of the Vancouver Canucks goes down hurt during the second period against the Boston Bruins.

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Vancouver Canucks Raffi Torres takes the Boston Bruins Brad Marchand i to the boards.

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lo_pak

Congrats...

Catpiano

No bad ..  like Spain ..  every winning game .. one goal game ..  haha ..