NHL: Vancouver advances to Stanley Cup Final

The Western Conference championship series between Vancouver and San Jose. The Canucks skated into this one just a single victory away from clinching their first appearance in the Stanley Cup finals in 17 years. It was a madhouse for game 5, the Vancouver faithful hoped to end the Western Conference Finals on home ice.

And the Canucks' Alex Burrows delivered the first goal eight minutes in. Brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin helped on the scoring play.

But the Sharks would not go quietly. They got the equalizer on a power play from Patrick Marleau. It was his sixth goal of the series.

It was tied 1-1 going to the third period. San Jose took command with a nice sequence that ended with Devin Setoguchi scoring into an empty net. He got his first of the series 24 seconds into the final period.

They'd keep the advantage until the final minutes. Ryan Kesler deflected Henrik Sedin's shot through Antti Niemi. There's still hope for the home side, Vancouver and San Jose were headed for overtime.

Watch this great glove-work from Roberto Luongo in the Vancouver goal. The Sharks fired 16 shots at him in the first overtime, including one from Kyle Wellwood, Luongo makes the stop in style.

They'd skate into the second overtime. Vancouver's Alexander Edler tried to fire the puck off the glass from the right point, but it caromed awkwardly off the stanchion and out to Kevin Bieksa, and he collected the game winner from just inside the blue line.

So the Canucks are headed to the NHL finals, exactly 17 years after they earned their previous trip to play for the Stanley Cup. Vancouver rode 54 saves from Luongo to advance to the league championship final round for the third time in the team's 40-year history.

Alain Vigneault, Vancouver Canucks coach, said, "I'm extremely proud of my players, the organisation. Real happy for the fans. I mean, obviously this has been a long time coming. Like we had said at the start of the season, we were in this not to win one round, two rounds, three rounds, but to get in this to win the Stanley Cup. Now we're going to get the opportunity to compete for it. I think our players deserve it. I think our organisation and our fans deserve it also. So we're going to give it our best shot."

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