Bieksa Comes Up Big Again For The Canucks

Added on May 25, 2011 by J Merrill in

NFL

On the back of a 54 save game by Roberto Luongo, Kevin Bieksa scored another goal fans won’t soon forget, and he did it in double over time. The goal would give the Canucks a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks, and it would secure them a spot in 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 1994.

The game looked like a lost cause for the Canucks, as the Sharks were skating there way to a 2-1 win when Ryan Kessler was able to sneak a goal in behind Antti Niemi with 13.2 seconds left in regulation. Kessler almost didn’t finish the game after leaving the game in the second period, but he said the doctors were able to patch him up enough so he could return to playing. He said “The doctors took care of me and got me back out there quick. They did a good job and it felt good to get that one.”

San Jose Sharks Coach Scott McLellan said there was only one person in the arena that saw the puck that found its way past his goalie. “The only guy that knew where the puck was was Kevin Bieksa. When you watch the replay, the officials didn’t know where it was, Nemo didn’t know where it was, Vancouver, San Jose, nobody knew where it was. It came right to Bieksa. One more bounce he probably whiffs on it we’re still playing.”

Bieksa described the shot as being one of the ugliest of his career, but when you consider the stakes it has become his best. He said “I just one-timed it on net and not many people knew where it was. It was just a knuckleball. I barely got enough on it to put it on net. It was a hard puck to shoot. It was probably the ugliest goal of my career, but the biggest.” Bieksa was besides himself at the opportunity to compete for hockey’s highest honor. He said “It feels unbelievable. To go to the Stanley Cup Final is a dream come true, and to do it with this group of guys, our core has been here for seven or eight years working toward something special and we have a huge opportunity in front of us.” Bieksa concluded that he was still decompressing from the night, but he knows he is a step closer to one of his life long goals. He said “It’s a big surreal right now. It’s still fresh, but it’s something you work for your entire life and it’s going to be fun to go with this group of guys.”

Dan Boyle of Sharks said its hard to win any game when you are playing against a goalie who is playing as good as Robert Luongo did in game 5. Boyle said it felt like they threw everything at him in the overtime period. He said “We had tons of chances. We had about five, six or seven shifts where we were in their end and we just threw everything at them. We missed a lot of freaking chances, but that’s the name of the game — you’ve got to bury them. Obviously we have to give Lu credit, but that’s on us. I think we had the chances, the looks, and didn’t put it in.” In fact, they out shot the Canucks for the game 56-34, and they had 16 shots in the first OT period but couldn’t score on Luongo.

The Vancouver Canucks will now be waiting for the series between the Boston Bruins and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Boston leads the series 3 games to 2.