For the second time in three games, the Vancouver Canucks and the Dallas Stars are heading into overtime. I’m pleased to see that the ‘Nucks are outshooting the Stars (34-25 in regulation), but the team suffered a bit of a scare when it Ladislav Nagy skated into Roberto Luongo’s wrist. Bobby Lu appears to be okay, but for a moment there, I thought that the Canucks would have to rely on the goaltending services of backup Danny Sabourin.

As I write this, the score is deadlocked at 1-1 (much like the series) with overtime starting in just a few minutes. They said that this was going to be one of the closest matched series in the 2007 NHL playoffs and the two clubs are certainly delivering. Turco has been amazing and Markus Naslund has suddenly awaken from his slumber.

I’m still going to predict that the Canucks will win in six, even if this game goes into quadruple overtime. I’ll update this post with the final score… whenever that happens.

In related news, the Anaheim Ducks won their game earlier tonight against the Minnesota Wild with a score of 2-1, and again, Ilya Bryzgalov was in net for the Ducks. He’s really stepped up in these playoffs. This win puts the Ducks within one game of the series sweep, just like I predicted.

UPDATE: Well, that didn’t very long at all. No quadruple overtime tonight, as Taylor Pyatt put one behind Turco at 7:47 of the first overtime to win game three for the Vancouver Canucks. This was Pyatt’s first career playoff goal. The Canucks had all the momentum going into overtime as they had plenty of energy in the third (where Jan Bulis tied the game) and they carried that puck control and “hunger” into the fourth period.

The three stars were, in order, Roberto Luongo, Marty Turco (who is now 1-8 in playoff overtime games), and Taylor Pyatt. The Canucks are now up 2-1 on the series.