It’s the final period and gritty Vancouver favorite Trevor Linden comes through, redirecting a Mattias Ohlund shot home through Turco to give the Canucks a 2-1 lead with exactly 13:00 left in regulation.

Can Dallas comeback? They need to stop taking penalties. It’s cost them.

One thought about the penalty fest. I don’t like it. This is a Game 7 and they’re making tacky calls all over the ice. That’s not how you decide a series. I am disappointed in how this game has been called. The way it’s been called, Dallas is owed a couple big time.

11:41 remaining.

11:21 PM: Roberto Luongo makes the save of the playoffs flat out robbing Stu Barnes of a sure tying goal. He had a wide open net in the slot and Luongo slid across and gloved it. Unbelievable!

With under 10:00 to play, Dallas will go on the power play due to a Jeff Cowan penalty.

Can Dallas score here and tie it? They really need to. As the Beezer notes, they could really use Zubov to run this PP.

Eric Lindros nearly sets up the tying goal. The Big E has looked good in this series. He was also just in front on another good chance but the net comes off. Luongo goes after Mike Ribeiro.

The faceoff will come outside the zone. Dallas has 31 seconds left on the PP. It actually stayed in but Jere Lehtinen takes down Sami Salo and goes to the box. The replay showed that it was Ladislav Nagy but Lehtinen is in the sin bin.

As Vancouver was about to start a power play, Markus Naslund goes for a hook. Another cheesy call. Man. These refs are really screwing this game up.

Now come four-on-four with 7:30 to go.

Canucks still up one.

And now the Stars get called for another penalty. Wtf? You have to be kidding!

A 4-on-3 for Vancouver with 7:05 left.

Turco makes a big save and then keeps the play moving and Halpern nearly scores shorthanded forcing Luongo to make a tough pad stop from an angle.

Now there was an actual trip and nothing called. Funny stuff. Linden gets to a loose puck and fires a wrister but Turco stops it.

Stephane Robidas fires away but Luongo gets a piece.

Two more penalties called as the new NHL referee bs continues…

5:00 remaining with Vancouver still ahead by one.

There have now been eight penalties called in this period points out Dave Strader. You think he’s disgusted? When Beezer refers to the refs as, “taking over,” that’s not a good sign.
Mike Modano was setup perfectly but fired one off the crossbar and looked up to the lights in disbelief.

3:44 left as Turco makes a glove save. Still 54 left on the latest four-on-four.

The Stars work the puck to Trevor Daley, who tries a slapper but Luongo’s glove eats it up as Nucks fans chant, “MVP, MVP, MVP.”

He sure has played like one.

2:40 to go. Does Dallas have one more goal in them?

They continue to push for it with some good aggressive forechecking but nothing has found the back of the net.

There’s 74 seconds to go and Dave Tippet has used his timeout after Vancouver iced the puck. They’ll have an extra attacker on with Turco at the bench. This is it!

The crowd is all waving towels. Vancouver has lost their last six Strader informs us with a chance to eliminate an opponent.

Lindros wins the draw cleanly but Philippe Boucher’s one-timer is blocked by Taylor Pyatt who gets rewarded by teammate Morrison, who then feeds the ex-Sabre for an empty netter which seals it.

Linden then sets up Bryan Smolinski, who finishes it off with one more open net goal to make it 4-1 as a defeated Stars bench looks on wondering what could’ve been.

This was a great series but someone had to lose.

The Canucks will next face Anaheim while San Jose visits Detroit in the Western Conference Semifinals.

Congrats to Vancouver! Luongo got it done. He proved why he’s one of the best goalies in this league. But so did Turco, who deserved a better fate. Poor guy just can’t win a big one. He was splendid all series. It’s ashame.

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Marty Turco (28 saves)

2nd Star- Roberto Luongo (19 saves)

1st Star- Trevor Linden (GW PPG- 2nd GW of series plus assist)

The traditional handshake was great. The best part was seeing the two netminders meet up and congratulate each other for a great series. You could see the mutual respect they had. They know they played in an unbelievable series. It was terrific stuff!

My final thought is that after all these years, the gritty vet Linden stepped up in this series. His two points tonight increased his Game 7 magic to 12 points for his career- remarkably the most among active players two better than the great Jaromir Jagr. When his team needed him, he came through. How about that. What a great story!

That will do it for tonight’s hockey coverage. We’ll see ya’ll for Round Two which begins Wednesday when the Rangers visit HSBC Arena against the top seeded Sabres.