Canucks 1, Bruins 0
Max Lapierre scored the game's only goal, Roberto Luongo stopped 31 shots and the Vancouver Canucks moved within a victory of their first Stanley Cup title with a 1-0 win over the visiting Boston Bruins in Game 5 on Friday.
The much-maligned Lapierre knocked a bad-angle shot off Bruins netminder Tim Thomas and into the net to give the Canucks their first lead since Game 2. Luongo made it stand up, putting together his best game of the series after getting shelled for 12 goals in a pair of losses in Boston.
The Canucks can wrap up the series with a victory in Game 6 Monday night in Massachusetts.
Boston couldn't take advantage of three power-play opportunities in a scoreless first period, and narrowly missed opening the scoring when a Mark Recchi wrist shot inside the eight-minute mark of the second period went just wide of the net. Vancouver nearly ended the deadlock moments later, but sparsely-used Tanner Glass fanned on a slick one-time pass from the point with a wide-open net in front of him.
Lapierre finally beat Thomas 4:35 into the third. After his first attempt from the left side of the crease was turned aside, Lapierre fished the puck around the boards and returned to his original position, slapping a loose puck off of Thomas from a bad angle and across the line.
Vancouver had a chance to extend the advantage but couldn't get much going on a power play just past the midway point of the period.
Boston's Johnny Boychuk nearly drew his team even with less than three minutes remaining, but Luongo flung out his glove hand to turn the shot aside. That was the last good chance the Bruins had on the night as they were blanked for the second time in the series.
Thomas made 24 saves in defeat.