CANUCKS WIN IN OT TO COMPLETE SWEEP OF BLUES

Roberto Luongo has been sensational in net for the Vancouver Canucks of late, and he really gave it his all on Tuesday night as his team defeated the St. Louis Blues in overtime by a 3-2 score.  Luongo stopped 47 shots and needed IV fluids after the game, but his teammates took care of business on the other end of the ice to complete Vancouver’s 4-0 first round sweep of St. Louis. 

Despite the sweep it wasn’t an easy series—three of the four games were decided by a single goal—and St. Louis went down fighting in game four as well.  The Canucks’ Kyle Wellwood opened the scoring in the first period with his unassisted goal at 5:20, and Vancouver would carry this 1-0 into the intermission.  They’d push their lead to 2-0 midway through the second as Alexandre Burrows assisted by Shane O'Brien and Willie Mitchell. 

At this point, the home team came to life and quickly got on the board themselves when Brad Boyes scored at 13:30 assisted by Barrett Jackman.  They’d tie the contest at 16:54 of the second on David Perron’s goal assisted by David Backes and Andy McDonald.   St. Louis controlled the momentum in overtime, outshooting the Canucks 18-9 but it was all for naught as Alexandre Burrows scored his second of the game at 19:41 of the period assisted by Willie Mitchell to give his team the victory and the series sweep.

After the game Luongo reflected on the tough series and talked about the importance of completing the first round sweep:

"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. It was a gritty one. We have a few guys banged up. It's good that we're going to get the rest now and heal up and make sure we're ready to go when the next round starts."

In addition to the solid goaltending of Luongo, the Blues were undone by their inability to score on the power play.  St. Louis’s power play went 0 for 7 in game four, and was a woeful 1 for 24 overall in the series.  This fact was not lost on forward Keith Tkachuk :

"The one thing that killed us in the series is our power play. We had opportunities throughout the series and we didn't capitalize. You've got to bring it up a notch and we didn't do that."

The Blues fought hard just to make the playoffs, posting the NHL’s best record in the second half of the season despite a slew of injuries.  They were swept for the first time since losing in four straight to Dallas in 1994.  Vancouver, meanwhile, swept a series for the first time in franchise history.