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Video: Breaking down the magic bounces of Kevin Bieksa’s series-winning goal

San Jose Sharks v Vancouver Canucks - Game Five

VANCOUVER, CANADA - MAY 24: in Game Five of the Western Conference Finals during the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Arena on May 24, 2011 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Harry How

With the Vancouver Canucks taking out the San Jose Sharks in five games of the Western Conference finals the talk all up until the Stanley Cup finals start will be about the way the Canucks punched their ticket to the finals.

Vancouver won Game 5 in double overtime thanks to a Kevin Bieksa goal that defies all description. It started with the Canucks locking down play in the San Jose end. They were able to bounce the puck around the zone and prevent the Sharks from taking control of things and clear the zone. Eventually the puck was worked around the perimeter and out to Alexander Edler.

Edler went to send the puck back deeper into the corner when he fired it along the glass. At that point, Versus’ Dave Strader and virtually everyone else on the ice lost sight of where the puck went. Kevin Bieksa was the one guy who did spot it as the puck bounced off a partition in the glass right to him as he fired the puck on net to beat Antti Niemi to win the game.

Bieksa’s shot wasn’t exactly the prettiest shot in the world as it knuckled and whirled towards the net just slipping past Niemi’s foot and into the corner of the net but it was good enough to put the Canucks into their first Stanley Cup finals since 1994. Back then it was Greg Adams beating the Toronto Maple Leafs in double overtime to send the Canucks off to face the New York Rangers in the Cup finals. Bieksa’s turn as the hero, even in the face of the wild bounces and freakish luck, will put him down in Canucks history as a hero.

Versus Dave Strader and Brian Engblom recap Game 5 and focus in on the wild play that ended the series.