Canucks, Bruins ready to finish off epic finals

Published 9:11 am Wednesday, June 15, 2011

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Roberto Luongo and the Vancouver Canucks have staggered home for the last time this season, exhausted and battered after one last Boston beatdown.

Although they’ve lost three of their last four games to the surging Bruins at the close of a contentious two-week Stanley Cup finals, the Canucks are ready to reap their reward for grinding out the NHL’s best regular-season record.

They get to play Game 7 at home — and home-ice advantage means more than anybody expected in a series that’s otherwise been utterly unpredictable.

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Vancouver hosts the Bruins tonight in both teams’ 107th and final game. The Canucks still hope to win their first NHL title after flopping in their first attempt Monday in Boston, while the Bruins are surging in confidence while closing within a game of ending a 39-year Stanley Cup drought.

“This is playoff hockey at its finest,” Vancouver center Manny Malhotra said. “No one wants to budge on home ice. This entire series has been a full playoff experience, filled with a lot of different types of games.”

The home team has won every game to date, but Boston has done it better than the favored Canucks. While the Bruins blew out Vancouver by a combined 17-3, the Canucks eked out three one-goal victories.

Perhaps after one final head-clearing walk on the Vancouver seawall, his meditation of choice before two key victories this postseason, he’ll get his last chance at redemption on the same ice.