Times wires
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
VANCOUVER — Daniel Sedin scored his second power-play goal of the game, and Chris Higgins and Mason Raymond added man-advantage goals in the third period for the Canucks, who routed the Sharks 7-3 on Wednesday night and took a 2-0 lead in the Western Conference final.
Defenseman Aaron Rome scored his first playoff goal with 5:30 left as the Canucks scored four times in the third.
The Canucks scored five unanswered goals starting with 7:55 left in the second when Kevin Bieksa scored on a breakaway to break a 2-2 tie.
Sedin leads the playoffs with five power-play goals. His eight goals overall are tied for the playoff lead with the Lightning's Sean Bergenheim.
Logan Couture, Ben Eager and Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks.
The intensity level was cranked up for Game 2. There were several scrums after the whistle and some thundering collisions. The game ended with several shoving matches and punches thrown.
A hit by Eager on Sedin late in the second period infuriated the crowd and had the Canucks seeing red.
Eager ran into Sedin from behind, sending him crashing into the boards. The forward lay on the ice a few seconds before skating to the bench. Eager was called for boarding. Sedin returned to score one of his power-play goals later in the third.
Shark defenseman Douglas Murray set the tone early, flattening Rome with a bruising hit. Bieksa returned the favor, running over former teammate Kyle Wellwood.
Eager was off for tripping when Higgins made it 4-2. He took a pass from Mason Raymond and fired the puck behind Niemi. The Canucks are 4-0 in playoff games when Higgins, who was picked up at the trade deadline, scores.
Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo kept his team in the game when he weathered a second-period storm in which the Sharks pelted him with shots. He managed to get a glove on a Joe Thornton blast.
A wild first period ended 2-2 after the teams combined for three power-play goals. The Canucks scored goals 39 seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead, and a video replay was needed to determine the second Sharks goal, by Marleau, was good.
Canadiens: Outgoing team president Pierre Boivin said fans' demand for bilingual French-Canadian representatives on the roster and in the front office creates a competitive disadvantage for the team. "If it's a star (francophone player) … that's all they need to feel the cultural and linguistic connection," he told the Montreal Gazette. Boivin said the pool of bilingual front-office and coaching candidates is so small, "that's a huge disadvantage when human capital is your most important asset."