ST. LOUIS, April 20 (UPI) -- The Vancouver Canucks forced a seventh game in their Western Conference quarterfinal series Sunday, building a three-goal lead before holding on for a 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues.
After losing three of the first four games, Vancouver has won two in a row to send the best-of-seven series back to GM Place for the decisive contest on Tuesday night. It will be the first Game 7 of this year's playoffs.
Canucks captain Markus Naslund collected a goal and two assists, doubling his output from the first five games. Vancouver also got power-play tallies from Henrik Sedin and defenseman Ed Jovanovski before withstanding a furious third-period comeback.
St. Louis outshot the Canucks, 13-2, over the final 20 minutes and climbed within a goal on power-play tallies by Eric Boguniecki and Doug Weight.
But Dan Cloutier denied Scott Mellanby on a backhander from the left faceoff circle with just under five minutes to play and stopped Cory Stillman's shot from high in the right circle with 12.6 seconds remaining.
Only 16 times has a team overcome a three games to one deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series. Vancouver has done it twice, defeating Winnipeg in the 1992 Smythe Division semifinals and Calgary in the 1994 conference quarterfinals.
