What a nightmare game for a coach. Not to mention fans.

What were the refs doing in the opening minute after Tanner Glass lined up opposite Jamie McGinn? Both just itching to whistle Glass for something…following him around…warning him not to do it…and then nailing him for some chintzy check—for which they picked 'tripping' out of a hat. It set a tone of zero tolerance. And from that point on, the refs interfered with the game, rather than calling it as it came their way.

McGinn, we recall, is the man who knocked Ehrhoff and Rome out of Game 3. Glass' opening-minute phantom call set off a chain reaction of Canuck infractions. Despite the rash of penalties, the Canucks played a resilient road game and seized the opportunity when it came their way. And did it ever—in the form of three consecutive 5-on-3s mid-way through the second period. And with the shift in momentum, the floodgates opened, and they buried the Sharks in record-setting fashion.

At the 9:05 mark, the 10:39 mark, and the 11:01 mark, Henrik Sedin won three straight draws; and at the 9:16 mark, the 10:55 mark, and the 11:16 mark, Henrik set up three straight goals. All three plays were pretty much the same and all three were executed to perfection. And you know what they say—keep going to the well until they stop it. San Jose never did.

First, it was Henrik along the half-boards to Salo at the point, who faked a one-timer and slid the puck to Kesler on the far face-off dot. Kesler rifled a one-time rocket into the top corner over Niemi's right shoulder for his first of the series. The goal came 11 seconds into the 5-on-3.

A minute and 39 seconds later, on another 5-on-3, Henrik and Daniel set up Sami Salo's first of the night, as he blasted a one-timer under Niemi's right arm. Vancouver's second goal came 16 seconds into their second 5-on-3.

And you know it's your night when a careless too many men penalty is followed by a Douglas Murray delay of game penalty, which paved the way for another Salo bomb. The third 5-on-3 goal came 9 seconds into the 2-man advantage. It was deflected by a Shark defenseman and found Niemi's 5-hole.

Incredibly, after killing off five straight Sharks' power plays to open the game, the Canucks turned their defensive momentum (built by Luongo, Bieksa, Hamhuis, Hansen, Raymond, Kesler, Burrows…) into instant offense (Sedin, Sedin, Salo, and Kesler). So with 3 goals in 1:55, the Canucks made San Jose pay for being sloppy at a point in the game when the refs were looking to give Vancouver a break. This last fact was also the problem with the game. The refs had built themselves a deficit, and a weak call on Glass to start the game was settled with a weak call on Heatley mid-way through the affair to reverse the tide.

As a Canucks fan…you're screaming at the refs for the first half of the game, and then they deliver it to you on a silver platter. The whole thing felt somehow inevitable. Which is not to say the calls were all bad…most of them, in fact, were good calls. It's just that the referees started the game by assuming Vancouver was looking to punish McGinn. And they may have been. But there's a difference between wanting to punish a player and doing it.

On the first shift of the game, McGinn and Glass line up next to each other. Now McGinn is the plugger who punched Rome's ticket to the infirmary, so McGinn is the subject of a possible Canuck retaliation. And starting Kesler between Torres and Glass signaled a banging and crashing shift. But they never got the chance. The ref warned Glass before the puck was dropped. Then, after an icing call, the ref skated the length of the ice talking to Glass. Off the face-off, with Glass defending a Sharks' winger going wide, Glass was whistled for tripping. It's hard to see much of an infraction on the replay.

However you slice it, it was clear Vancouver had zero margin of error throughout the first half of the game. Both of Glass' penalties were soft, while the Bieksa high-stick and the Torres charge were debatable. Then the Hamhuis hook a few minutes into the 2nd was downright putrid. Especially after killing off four straight.

But you knew the tide would turn. The announcers called it, and after putting Vancouver in a penalty rut for the second straight game, it magically evened up. Just like Game 3. The only difference was that San Jose didn't have the magic in Game 4, while Vancouver did.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

And just like that, the Sharks were dead in the water.