Canucks 3, Bruins 2 (OT)
Alex Burrows' wraparound goal 11 seconds into overtime gave the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final Saturday night.
With the ice still wet from the intermission, Burrows streaked down the left side and faked a slapshot before briefly losing control of the puck behind the Boston goal. With Bruins netminder Tim Thomas falling for the shot fake, the Vancouver forward regained the puck and fired it from a bad angle into the empty goal, sending the Rogers Arena crowd into hysterics.
Burrows scored twice in the win while Daniel Sedin had the other Vancouver goal. David Krejci and Mark Recchi countered for the Bruins, who return home to host Game 3 on Monday night.
Burrows opened the scoring on a power play at 12:12 of the opening period with his eighth of the postseason. After Sami Salo blocked a Bruins clearing attempt at the blueline, Burrows wristed a loose puck that squeezed between Thomas's right arm and his body, trickling into the net behind him.
After being blanked through the first four periods of the series, Boston finally struck at the nine-minute mark of the second period. Vancouver netminder Roberto Luongo turned aside Johnny Boychuk's shot from the point but Krejci jumped on the rebound and swatted it beneath Luongo's right pad.
Boston seized its first lead of the series less than three minutes later. Chara's shot from the point redirected off the shaft of Recchi's stick from point blank range, bouncing into the top left corner. The goal made the 43-year-old Recchi the oldest player in NHL history to score in the Stanley Cup final.
Vancouver looked for the equalizer moments later but Thomas stuck out his right pad to deny Jannik Hansen from the side of the crease. The Canucks pressed again later in the period but Jeff Tambellini's shot from point-blank range was blocked by the stick of Bruins forward Michael Ryder.
The Canucks finally drew even at 9:37 of the third. An Alex Edler wrist shot from the point hit a player in front of the net and was redirected by Burrows to Sedin, whose wrist shot beat a fallen Thomas up high.
The Canucks received a boost even before the puck was dropped. Forward Manny Malhotra returned after missing 2 1/2 months with a serious eye injury and was given a thunderous ovation by the sellout crowd on his first shift of the game.