It was 17 years ago to the day that the Vancouver Canucks clinched their last Stanley Cup Final berth. The Canucks are well on their way to doing that with a 1-0 first period lead in Game 5.
Alex Burrows got the scoring kicked off for the Canucks at the 8:02 mark of the first period as he was the receipient of two nice passes by the Sedin twins. Daniel Sedin started the play with a between the legs pass to brother Henrik who flipped it to Burrows in front of the net.
Each team has had their fair share of chances in this period. The Sharks had a five on three powerplay in which they generated at least three or four good scoring chances but Roberto Luongo made the saves necessary to keep the Sharks scoreless on the power play.
The Sharks have completely outshot the Canucks 15-6 in the first period. Luongo has stood on his head thus far in the period in making all 16 saves in the period while Antti Niemi has five saves on six shots.
The question heading into the second period is whether Luongo can continue this pace to keep the Sharks shutout.