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ST. PAUL, Minn. - Brent Sopel sent a slap shot under Manny Fernandez's glove on an extended power play with 4:08 left in overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory over the Wild on Friday night.
The Canucks lead the series 3-1, with Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinal series on Monday in Vancouver.
Marian Gaborik scored twice for the Wild, which is 1-4 at home in the postseason.
Filip Kuba was assessed a major penalty for hitting Todd Bertuzzi in the eye with his stick, giving the Canucks a four-minute power play midway through the overtime.
Darby Hendrickson forced Ed Jovanovski into a turnover, but his breakaway shot was stopped by Dan Cloutier.
With 18 seconds left on the man advantage, Sopel took a pass from Markus Naslund, wound up and sent the puck past Fernandez.
The Wild's Nick Schultz slammed his stick in half on the net in frustration as fans threw bottles and cups onto the ice as the Canucks scurried off with the victory.
Gaborik answered Matt Cooke's goal with the go-ahead score 65 seconds later in an early third-period flurry, but Jovanovski scored his sixth goal of the playoffs with 2:06 left in regulation to tie it at 2.
YZERMAN TO PLAY: Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman is expected to return for a 21st season after missing most of this season because of knee surgery.
"It's pretty much a slam dunk as far as I know," assistant general manager Jim Nill said. "There's no contract, but it's just a formality to get him signed."
Yzerman, who turns 38 next week, rejoined Detroit in late February, six months after reconstructive knee surgery. He wasn't able to lead the team beyond the first round of the playoffs.
"I was a little down, and I wondered if I wanted to come back," Yzerman said in an interview with the Detroit News. "Pretty quickly, my mind was made up that I want to play, based on what I felt at the end of the regular season, and the four games in the playoffs. Plus, we still have a good team - potentially, an even stronger team next year."
SORRY, BRO: Penguins general manager Craig Patrick fired his brother, Glenn, as coach of the team's American Hockey League affiliate. Glenn Patrick led the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to a 36-32-7-5 record this season and had a 115-152-38-15 in four seasons. The Penguins were eliminated from the playoffs by Grand Rapids in the conference quarterfinals. Craig Patrick fired Rick Kehoe as Pittsburgh's coach last month.