Canucks rally to stun Sharks in third period

Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia

Defenseman Kevin Bieksa tied it 7:02 into the third period, Henrik Sedin scored on a power play 1:19 later, and the Vancouver Canucks came back to open their first Western Conference final in 17 years with a 3-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.

Maxim Lapierre scored his first of these playoffs, and Roberto Luongo made 27 saves — and a brutal first period giveaway — for the Canucks.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Vancouver.

Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau scored, and Antti Niemi stopped 35 shots for the Sharks, coming off an emotional, draining Game 7 victory over Detroit on Thursday night.

San Jose took a 2-1 lead into the third period thanks to a goal on its only power play, and the gift from Luongo. But after failing to finish several great chances late in the second, Vancouver finally converted in the third.

Alex Burrows got behind Dan Boyle on a left wing rush and fed a pass across and back to a pinching Bieksa atop the right faceoff circle. Bieksa’s wrist shot that caught Niemi sliding left and went past his blocker on the other side.

Dany Heatley took an elbowing penalty 32 seconds later, and the Canucks’ power play, which looked terrible its first three chances after leading the NHL in the regular season, finally converted.

A point pass from former Sharks defenseman Christian Ehrhoff got Niemi moving right, and Sedin, whose only other goal in these playoffs was into an empty net, skated onto it the other way, waiting for Niemi to slide past before tucking a backhand shot into the empty net.