Wild 3 - 4 Canucks OT/F - Game 79 - 04.04.10

Last night the Vancouver Canucks stepped on ice in hopes to lock up the North West division in back to back years.

Their opponent was none other than the Minnesota Wild. As you may know, The Wild consider Vancouver their number one rival and they never ease up when these two teams meet.

Back in the Canucks net was captain Roberto Luongo who was celebrating his 31st birthday. Happy birthday Roberto.

For the Wild, Niklas Backstrom was given the goaltending duties by his coach, Mr. Todd Richards.

Early in the game, the Canucks got penalized and the Wild had a golden chance to score the opening goal of the game. However, Alex burrows and Ryan Kesler were not going to allow that as they skated down the wild zone and scored a shorthanded goal for the Canucks.

Half way into the game, it seemed like Kevin Bieksa had finally scored his second goal of the season. But it turned out that Kyle Wellwood had tipped the puck by Backstrom for the 2-0 Canucks lead.

The Minnesota Wild had nothing but their pride to play for and they were not going down without a fight. In the third period, Andrew Brunette scored for the Wild to make it a one goal game.

Late in the game with Backstrom pulled, Alex Edler scored from his own end to put this game away.

But wait just a minute, this was far from being over. With less than a minute to go, the Wild rookie Cody Almond scored to keep the Wild alive. Shortly after, Antti Miettinen tied the game in the dying seconds to shock the Vancouver Canucks.

The Canucks had this game wrapped up, but with a few breakdowns, they allowed Minnesota to even the score.

During overtime, Greg Zanon got a hi-sticking penalty and that put the Wild down by a man, making it a 4 on 3 opportunity for the Canucks.

Coach Alain Vigneault sent out his big guns and they did not disappoint. The Sedin twins did a tremendous job to set up Sami Salo as he blew the puck right past Backstrom to win this hard fought game for the Canucks.

With that win, The Vancouver Canucks are your 2009/10 north west division champions for the second consecutive year.

That was also their 48th win of the season as they matched their previous years points total with 100 points.

This coming Tuesday, The Canucks will have a chance to match the total franchise wins in a single season with 49 victories when they take on the Colorado Avalanche.

Make sure to catch that game tomorrow at 7:00PM PST on Rogers Sportsnet and Canucks.com.

GO CANUCKS GO