LOS ANGELES (AP) — Daniel Sedin scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:03 to play, and the Vancouver Canucks rallied from another third-period deficit to finish off their first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings with a 4-2 victory in Game 6 Sunday night.
Roberto Luongo made 30 saves while keeping Vancouver close in its third straight victory over Los Angeles, and Kevin Bieksa tied it early in the third period for the third-seeded Canucks.
Sedin then skated in to collect a loose puck and snapped a shot over goalie Jonathan Quick, sending Vancouver to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
Drew Doughty and Alexander Frolov scored and Quick stopped 18 shots for the sixth-seeded Kings, who struggled to finish close games in their first playoff appearance since 2002.
Steve Bernier scored an early goal for Vancouver, and Alex Burrows put his first goal of the postseason into an empty net with 1:07 left.
Mikael Samuelsson failed to score a goal for the first time in his remarkable series, but still earned two assists — including an accidental helper on Sedin's decisive goal when he apparently broke his stick on a slap shot — to finish with 11 points.
Vancouver roared into the second round, possibly to meet Chicago for the second straight year, after trailing in the third period of Game 4 while Los Angeles had a 2-1 series lead.
The Canucks dominated the series' next 80 minutes, scoring four goals to win Game 4 at Staples Center before routing Los Angeles 7-2 in Game 5 at home on Friday night. Vancouver finished the series on a 15-5 run over the final seven periods.
While Luongo had perhaps his finest performance of the series in Game 6, Quick's late-season struggles never disappeared for long, even while Los Angeles earned a playoff berth. He failed in eight straight tries to earn his 40th victory of the winningest season for a goalie in Kings history, and he gave up five goals — along with two empty-netters — in the third periods of Los Angeles' final two home playoff games. He also was pulled from Game 5.
Although Los Angeles' dominant power play had cooled in the previous two games, the Kings scored both goals in Game 6 moments after power plays ended.
Frolov opened the scoring by gathering the puck behind the net, holding off Henrik Sedin with an arm while circling and firing a shot past Luongo in the far corner. The inconsistent Russian hadn't scored a goal in the first five games against Vancouver.
Luongo kept the Canucks' deficit from growing much larger while Los Angeles outshot Vancouver 4 to 1 for most of the first 30 minutes. The Canadian Olympic star made his most spectacular save on Ryan Smyth's point-blank chance midway through the second period, rolling to the ice while making an improbable glove stop above his prone body.
Moments later, Bernier evened it just eight seconds into a power play when he deflected a shot by Alexander Edler after Sean O'Donnell's weak clearing attempt.
Los Angeles increased its shots advantage during another power play, and Doughty put the Kings ahead with a shot through traffic late in the second period. But Bieksa tied it again, slipping a low shot between Quick's pads for the first playoff goal of his NHL career.
NOTES: Wayne Gretzky got a raucous ovation when he appeared on the overhead scoreboard while watching the game from a luxury suite. Gretzky played nearly eight seasons with the Kings, and is memorialized in a bronze statue outside Staples Center. ... Kings leading scorer Anze Kopitar went down hard near the boards with 3½ minutes left in the third period and skated to the bench, putting no weight on his left foot. ... Vancouver has reached seven of the past nine postseasons, but hasn't made the conference finals since 1994, when the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup finals to the New York Rangers.
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