If you missed the Vancouver Canucks series-clinching win over the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, you missed one of the more bizarre ends to an NHL playoff game. In double-overtime, as the game stretched well into the night, a freak bounce and being in the right place at the right time paid off for the Canucks as Kevin Bieksa slipped a shot from the point past Antti Niemi to send the Canucks through to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Watch the video and see if you can figure out what happened.
The puck comes out to Alexander Edler and he tries to dump it back into the corner. Edler lifts the puck into the glass in an attempt to get it past of the quick approaching San Jose defender, which triggers a chain-reaction resulting in the goal. The puck hits a stanchion and all but two players -- Bieksa and a nearby Shark -- believe it went up into the netting. You can see many holding their hands up, motioning as if the play should be blown dead.
With Niemi distracted and a clear path to the goal, Bieksa rips a shot that sneaks into the net. A moment of confusion envelops the announcer, whose game-winning call will be remembered as this:
"Back to the line, Edler. And that puck is (yelp) in the net. The San Jose Sharks thought this puck was out of play. (horns)"
That pretty much sums up the end of the game. Viewers at home, the announcers and even the players had no idea what just hit them. And it was one of the more amazing finishes to a game of this magnitude that you'll see for quite some time.