But that broom didn't come out so easily. The Blues scored two goals in under four minutes in the second and forced an incredible overtime. St. Louis deserves a lot of credit not just in this series, but this game in particular. A lot of teams would have folded, but they came back, tied the game quickly and dictated much of the play in the OT.
But, with :19 seconds left, Burrows burst in on the left side of Mason and fired a seemingly innocent shot that beat him, making the Canucks the first team to make it to the second round and capping off the first sweep of a seven game series in Vancouver history.
The defense was the name of the game again. The Vancouver blueline - Ohlund, Mitchell and Bieksa in particular - were simply biblical killing off six penalties, including a four minute high sticking call on Kesler in the overtime.
Despite the Blues impassioned play in the third and badly outshooting Vancouver in overtime (18-9), the Canucks still managed to prevail with the timely goal. Four wins in less then a week to cap off the quarter finals. And the sweep came when they were down a top four defenseman in Salo and their second line center in Sundin.
Un-friggin-real.
There's a lot to discuss about what/why/how this team did what they did in the past week against the hottest team in the NHL, but that will have to wait for a more sober hour.
For now I leave you with a simple question: