Christopher Tanev scored 11 seconds into overtime, and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs' main draw with a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday in Game 4 at Edmonton.
Tanev, who also had two assists, fired a shot from the right point through traffic and past the blocker side of Minnesota goaltender Alex Stalock to clinch the best-of-five Western Conference qualifying series 3-1.
"It's an awesome feeling and I'm happy for all the boys," Tanev said. "It just shows how hard we worked all year, we were down, but we made some big-time plays by some big-time guys."
Bo Horvat also scored a goal and had two assists, Quinn Hughes and Tanner Pearson each had a goal and an assist, and Brandon Sutter also scored for the Canucks. Jacob Markstrom finished with 25 saves.
Eric Staal, Luke Kunin, Joel Eriksson Ek and Nico Sturm scored goals and Jonas Brodin had a pair of assists for Minnesota. Stalock finished with 26 saves.
Minnesota, which was 0-for-13 on the power play in Game 2 and 3 losses, took a 1-0 lead at the 2:58 mark of the first period on a power-play goal by Kunin. He tucked in a rebound between Markstrom's skate and the left post.
Vancouver tied it midway through the period on Pearson's second goal of the series, a wrist shot from the left dot that beat Stalock on his glove side. But the Wild regained the lead 40 seconds later when Staal fired in a bad-angle shot from below the left circle that hit Markstrom in the shoulder and trickled in.
Eriksson Ek made it 3-1 early in the second period when he batted in a loose puck at the bottom of the right circle. But Vancouver rallied to tie it with two goals in 84 seconds. The first came from Sutter, who tapped in a high rebound in the crease, and the second was from Hughes, who rifled a shot from above the circles past a Brock Boeser screen for his first NHL playoff goal.
Sturm put Minnesota back in front just before the end of the period with his first career NHL goal, a wrist shot from inside the left circle that beat Markstrom on his short side.
Horvat tied it 4-4 with 5:46 left in the third period, cutting to the net and converting a pass from Pearson from the end boards for his second goal of the playoffs.
--Field Level Media
