The Vancouver Canucks pulled off one of the most incredible comebacks in NHL history on Tuesday night to keep their wafer-thin playoff hopes alive. They did something that had never been done before, scoring three goals in the final minute to tie the game and force overtime, where they completed the comeback to win the game.
The very next day, the Minnesota Wild snuffed out those playoff hopes, officially eliminating the Canucks from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canucks' only hope was for the Wild to lose all of their remaining games, meaning their hopes were in the hands of Minnesota's opponents in the final week of the regular season. On Wednesday, those hopes were held by the last-place San Jose Sharks.
Incredibly, a day removed from the Canucks overcoming a three-goal deficit in the third period, the Sharks did the same thing, taking the Wild to overtime when it no longer seemed possible. Unfortunately for the Canucks, it only prolonged the inevitable, as Kirill Kaprizov scored the game-winning goal in overtime.
The win for the Wild brings them to 93 points. While the Canucks can still reach 93 points by winning all four of their remaining games, the Wild hold the tiebreaker with 33 regulation wins. The most the Canucks can get to is 31.
With that, the Canucks are mathematically eliminated.
It was a wild game, no pun intended. The two teams combined for a whopping 15 goals en route to overtime.
Former Canuck Tyler Toffoli gave the Sharks the early lead in the first period, but the Wild replied twice to enter the first intermission up 2-1. The second period saw a flurry of goals, as the two teams traded goals, heading into the third period with the Wild up 5-4.
Two quick goals in the opening two minutes of the third period seemed to put the Wild comfortably ahead but the Sharks clawed them back, scoring three unanswered goals to tie the game. The final goal came with less than a minute remaining in regulation. If this was a Disney movie, this is when Canucks fans would realize that destiny was on their side and nothing would keep the Canucks from making the playoffs.
Then reality struck with Kaprizov's goal a minute into overtime.
Sharks super-rookie Macklin Celebrini, who grew up in Vancouver as a diehard Canucks fan, did everything he possibly could to keep his childhood team's hopes alive. Celebrini had a five-point night, tallying a hat trick and adding two assists, including points on all three of comeback goals in the third period.
It was the first hat trick of Celebrini's NHL career.
Celebrini did what he could but the Canucks' longest of long shot paths to making the playoffs has officially been closed.
