After a disastrous trip to Boston that saw the Vancouver Canucks surrender 12 goals in two games to the Boston Bruins, the Stanley Cup Finals heads back to Rogers Arena on Friday night with the series tied at two. Vancouver is looking to recapture some of the magic from the first two games after tripping all over itself in Boston, dropping Game 3 and 4 by a combined 12-1 margin.
Roberto Luongo had a trip to forget and was pulled from the net in the third period of Game 4 after conceding a fourth goal of the game. Tim Thomas, on the other hand, has been a brick wall, casting aside all but one shot over the two-game stretch while stifling the Canucks offense. We've seen this story before with Vancouver -- Luongo has struggled before in these NHL playoffs and the Canucks have blow series leads -- but with the stakes high, one has to wonder how long a leash Luongo is on with Cory Schneider waiting on the bench.
The series has been chippy through the first four games, and don't expect it to change on Friday night. Alex Burrows' bit started the fire, the Canucks fanned the flames with taunts in Game 2 and Aaron Rome's hit on Nathan Horton in Game 3 pushed the Stanley Cup Finals past the breaking point. Horton will miss the rest of the playoffs with a concussion and Rome is suspended for the rest of the series. In Game 4, tensions were high again, and the third period was filled with fights, shoving matches and chippy play.
Game 5 gets underway at the same time as the rest of the Stanley Cup Finals games have thus far: 5 p.m. PDT. After two games on Versus, it's back to NBC for the broadcast, but Game 5 will be shown on the secondary affiliate in Seattle: KONG TV. CBUT will carry the Canadian feed of the game, as always.
SB Nation has a StoryStream for Game 5, with previews and various other news ahead of Friday night's matchup. Roberto Luongo will start, but Vancouver will be without the services of Keith Ballard, who Travis Hughes called "brutal" in Game 4. Nucks Misconduct is your home for all things Canucks, so head over and say hello there.
For more on Game 5, be sure to stay with this StoryStream throughout the evening. More on the game can be found over at Nucks Misconduct, SB Nation's Vancouver Canucks blog, and Stanley Cup of Chowder, SB Nation's Bruins blog.