OT triumph locks playoffs down.

I need to keep this one short so I can get to this week's prayer group, but after watching the NHL On The Fly highlights, I felt compelled to give some love to the Canucks for a nice 2-1 win over the Wild that clinched a playoff spot with six games to go, and pushed the Orca into 3rd in the West/1st in the Northwest. 

You really have to give all the love in this one to the first star (finally) Roberto Luongo. Bobby Lu stopped 33 of 34 shots, including a third period that will blow your mind. With the good guys up by 1, the Minnesota Wild outshot Vancouver 11-0 in the third period. Are you kidding me? El Roberto didn't care, though, coming away with 10 saves on those 11 shots to keep the game close enough to get things to overtime, where he had to even be better. A 4 on 3 power play for the Wild in the overtime session would have set up a game winning goal perfectly, but Roberto was strong yet again, holding off the 4 Minnie shots, to allow Henrik Sedin a chance to get the game winning goal with a minute to go until the shootout. Po Po Demitra earned a power play goal in the second period at 18:58 on a crazy puck that seemed to bounce off of the skate of a Wild defender after bouncing off Kesler as well. Kes originally was given the tally, but it was shifted. The 11-0 shot difference in the final frame resulted in a Marian Gaborik goal that tied it up at 5:14 of the third. Hank was able to notch the game winner, however, at 4:00 of the overtime after a sweet through the legs pass from brother Daniel to H-Bomb in the slot. It was Hank's 19th goal, and it sent the Canucks to the locker room pretty damned pumped up. 

On March 10, Vancouver sat 10 points back of division leader Calgary. Now, the Canucks and their 42-25-9 (93 points) record is good enough for a 1 point lead on the Flames. Minnie and Edmonton sit back 12 of Vancouver in the division. In the bigger picture, the Orca are now #3 in the West with their 93 points, with #4 Calgary back 1, #5 Chicago back 2, #6 Columbus down 5, and 7/8 Anaheim/Nashville back 9. The battle for 8th is pretty heated. If the playoffs ended today, we would miss our first round Van/Chi matchup, but the Canucks match up pretty well with the Blue Jackets as well. Despite going 1-2-1 during the regular season against Columbus, not very many would pick against Vancouver at home in this series, as the 'Nucks earned a point in every home game against the Jacks. The continued regular season needs to be the focus, however, as the Canucks get ready to match up with the hated Ducks yet again tomorrow night. The game will be televised, so you know where I'll be on Thursday evening. If the season ended today, the Ducks would be set to get swept out of the playoffs by the #2 Red Wings. We'll see how tomorrow night goes. 

As usual, the Sports Pickle comes through on the comedy front.