San Jose Sharks beat the Canucks 4-3, tightening the Western Conference final

The Vancouver Canucks took 10 penalties and suffered two injuries on the blueline on their way to a 4-3 loss to the San Jose Sharks.

The Sharks are now down 2-1 in the best of seven Western Conference final, with Game 4 scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

San Jose scored three unanswered goals in the first period, including two on the power play. They outshot the Canucks 16-8 in the first frame in front of a raucous home crowd.

In the second period, San Jose took four penalties. But the Canucks were unable to score even though they had a two-man advantage for 1:55.

Early in the third period, Canuck Alex Burrows scored on a wrist shot from the slot after some good offensive work by Kevin Bieksa.

Things were looking good for the Canucks until Kesler took a tripping penalty, followed shortly after by Burrows going to the box for tripping goalie Antti Niemi.

With two key Canuck penalty-killing forwards sidelined, Shark defenceman Dan Boyle scored, giving the home team a 4-1 lead at 6:46 of the third period.

Less than five minutes later, Jamie McGinn hammered Canuck defender Aaron Rome into the boards, which drew a five-minute major. Rome was seriously shaken up and left the game, never to return.

Jamie McGinn hammers Aaron Rome into the boards.

He was the second blueliner sidelined; Christian Ehrhoff also went to the dressing room earlier after a collision with McGinn.

In his post-game news conference, Canuck coach Alain Vigneault said it was possible that both Ehrhoff and Rome may miss Game 4. When asked about the work of the officials, Vigneault said that he preferred not to comment because if he spoke his mind, he would receive a large fine from the league.

Shark centre Logan Couture was another casualty, departing his teammate, Ryan Clowe, rammed into him in his own end.

McGinn's five-minute boarding penalty led to two Canuck power play goals late the third period—one by Dan Hamhuis and one by Bieksa—narrowing the gap to 4-3.

The Canucks were unable to tie the game and took two more penalties in the last minute, along with a 10-minute misconduct dished out to Maxim Lapierre.