Sami Salo scored a power-play goal at 2:15 of overtime and the Vancouver Canucks clinched the Northwest Division title with a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night.
Salo scored the winner after the Canucks squandered a 3-1 lead in the final minute of regulation time.
Ryan Kesler, Kyle Wellwood and Alex Edler, into an empty net with 55 seconds remaining, also scored as the Canucks (48-27-4) locked up home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs and reached the 100-point mark.
Andrew Brunette, Cody Almond, with his first NHL career goal, and Antti Miettinen replied for the Wild (37-35-7), whose playoff hopes ended a long time ago. Minnesota failed to win in three games at General Motors Place this season.
Edler's empty-netter gave Vancouver what appeared to be an insurmountable two-goal lead with less than a minute left. But Almond, playing only his fourth NHL game, tallied with 42 seconds remaining in the third period and Miettinen scored with 18.8 left to force overtime.
Until then, the Canucks had dominated, but were often stymied by Minnesota goaltender Niklas Backstrom, who recorded 36 saves as Vancouver outshot the Wild 40-27.
Vancouver was 2-for-7 on the power play while Minnesota went 1-for-8.
Kesler opened the scoring with a short-handed marker 5:02 into the game as Alex Burrows went around Martin Havlat and sent him a pass across the goalmouth. The goal came only 10 seconds after Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa took an interference penalty.
Vancouver scored on its eighth shot of the game. The Wild did not record a shot until Cam Barker put a wrister into Roberto Luongo at the 9:16 mark.
But Luongo was tested late in the first as he picked off a hard Havlat shot with his catching glove. The Canucks outshot Minnesota 11-3 in the first.
Early in the second period, Luongo dove to poke the puck from Owen Nolan during a partial short-handed breakaway.
Vancouver took a 2-0 lead on a power play midway through the second on Wellwood's high-slot deflection of Bieksa's wrist shot from the blue-line.
It was the second goal in three games for Wellwood, a fan favourite who has often found himself in coach Alain Vigneault's doghouse for a lack of offensive production and mild-mannered play.
He scored during the third of three Wild penalties about four minutes apart. Backstrom was helpless as Kesler stood right on his doorstep and appeared to make brief contact shortly before the puck went in.
Moments later, Kesler had a chance to increase Vancouver's advantage during another Canuck power play, but Backstrom robbed him with a diving stick save.
Late in the second, Luongo thwarted Nolan again as he snared his wrist shot. In the first minute of the third period, Henrik Sedin aided a helpless Luongo by blocking a Guillaume Latendresse shot towards an empty net.
Brunette reduced Vancouver's lead to 2-1 at the 10-minute mark of the third as he put in a rebound off the end boards with only four seconds left in a Minnesota power play, setting the stage for a crazy finish.
NOTES: The Canucks announced their 300th consecutive sellout ... A scoring change on Wellwood's goal deprived Bieksa, who missed much of the season with a severed ankle tendon, of his first marker since Vancouver's season opener against Calgary on Oct. 1 ... Mikael Samuelsson returned to the Vancouver lineup after missing eight games due to a shoulder injury ... The Wild will finish the season with their fewest road wins since they posted 15 in 15-2005-06 ... Canucks defenceman Shane O'Brien apologized as he returned from a one-week exile handed out after he reported late for practice last Monday and failed to stay under his team-mandated weight limit ... Almond has had a wild ride in his first pro season. The 20-year-old Calgary native, who now calls Kelowna, B.C., home, tore a medial collateral ligament in his knee and then suffered a broken arm while playing for Houston of the AHL early in the season. But Almond, who helped Kelowna win a WHL title and advance to the Memorial Cup final last season, was recently called up to the NHL for the first time when Minnesota ran into injury troubles of its own.
