VANCOUVER — Kevin Bieksa called it an ugly goal. But really, for the Vancouver Canucks and their long-suffering fans, it was a thing of beauty.

Never mind the puck took a fortuitous bounce off the glass and somehow ended up in the middle of the ice where Bieksa managed to flutter a shot past startled San Jose goalie Antti Niemi at 10:18 of double overtime to send the Canucks to the Stanley Cup final.

"I just tried to put it on net," Bieksa said in a joyous Canuck dressing room after their 3-2 Western Conference series-clinching win in Game 5. "That's the first thought. When it went in, I just yelled out 'let's go to the Cup.' It's a good feeling.

"It's an ugly goal, but definitely one we'll take."

No kidding.

This will be the Canucks third trip to the final. And this time, they'll be favoured to win it all.

"Obviously it feels unbelievable," Bieksa said. "To go to the Stanley Cup finals is a dream come true."

It was an unbelievably entertaining game that was full of twists and turns. The Sharks went down with one heck of a fight, as they outshot the Canucks 56-34.

Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo was terrific.

"He was unreal," winger Alex Burrows said of Luongo. "But every time he gets 50 shots he's pretty good normally. Those old Florida days, he has a lot of experience with that. He was unbelievable tonight. He had some big saves, looked big and played with confidence."

The Canucks will meet either the Boston Bruins or Tampa Bay Lightning in the final. Boston leads the Eastern Conference final 3-2 with Game 6 scheduled for Wednesday night in Tampa, Florida.

If the Bruins clinch the series on Wednesday, the Cup final could start as early as Saturday night at Rogers Arena.

Bieksa never would have had the chance to be the hero if not for some heroics in the dying seconds of the third period by Ryan Kesler. The Canuck centre forced overtime when he scored with 13.2 seconds left in the third, tipping home a long Henrik Sedin shot. The goal came with Luongo on the bench for an extra attacker.

Midway through the second period, Kesler left the ice after appearing to injure his left leg. He went immediately to the dressing room, but returned late in the second.

"He's an animal out there," Burrows said of Kesler. "I knew he was going to come back. It's all about his heart and his mind that really pulls his legs and puts him in those kind of pressure moments. He came back strong and it was a big goal by him."

San Jose coach Todd McLellan, like nearly everyone else in the building, lost sight of the puck before Bieksa's game-winner.

"The only guy that knew where the puck was was Kevin Bieksa," McLellan said. "He actually bounced it into the net. It's one of those things that you absolutely have no control over. We can talk about it all we want. It went off a stanchion. When you watch the replay, the officials didn't know where it was, Niemo didn't know where it was, Vancouver, San Jose, nobody knew where it was. It came right to Bieksa. One more bounce he probably whiffs on it we're still playing. Nothing we can do about it."

Until Kesler's tying goal, it looked like Devin Setoguchi's goal 26 seconds into the third was going to stand as the game-winner for the Sharks. Setoguchi snapped a 1-1 tie when he and Joe Pavelski broke into the Canuck zone alone. Luongo came out of his net to try and poke the puck off the stick of Pavelski, but missed. Pavelski flipped the puck to Setoguchi, who had the entire net to shoot at.

Burrows opened the scoring for the Canucks at 8:02 of the first when he finished off a pretty three-way passing play with the Sedin twins

"All the hard work throughout my life and now I have a chance to battle for the Stanley Cup," said Burrows. "It's a dream come true but we have to make sure we focus, get re-energized and get ready for (the final)."

"It's obviously a great feeling," added veteran defenceman Sami Salo. "You can't really describe it. I have been able to get to the finals in other leagues and Olympics and world championships, but never had a chance to play for the Stanley Cup. It's very exciting."

The Canucks, as Western Conference champions, were presented with the Clarence Campbell Trophy after the game, when the ice was covered with blue confetti that had been released from the Rogers Arena rafters. Captain Henrik Sedin posed for a picture with the trophy, but did not touch it.

It's not the Cup the Canucks are interested in.

By David Pollak

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- There was the too-familiar pain that comes with seeing their Stanley Cup hopes dashed once again.

But in the aftermath of their 3-2 loss in double overtime to the Vancouver Canucks that eliminated them from the Western Conference finals Tuesday night in five games, the Sharks also had to deal with the fact they were beaten by a freakish goal that no one except the shooter saw coming.

The puck appeared to be heading behind the San Jose net from the right point, and that was where everybody -- including Sharks goalie Antti Niemi -- focused their attention. Instead, it hit a stanchion along the glass and somehow trickled to Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa.

And his shot from 60 feet out at 10:18 of the second overtime bounced its way past a startled Niemi, who lost a playoff series for the first time.

"I didn't see it at all until the last two or three meters," Niemi said. "It was one of the weirdest goals I've ever given up, sure. It started to bounce, and I lost it, and I never saw it until right at the end when it was past me."

Other Sharks on the ice were equally baffled.

"Everything just stopped," Joe Pavelski said "The only guy that knew where it was, it went right to his stick."

What made the end of their season even more frustrating was that the Sharks were within 13.2 seconds of winning the game in regulation. San Jose had taken a 2-1 lead just 24 seconds into the third period on a goal by Devin Setoguchi, and it looked as if that might hold up.

But the Canucks pulled goaltender Roberto Luongo with 1:14 left in the third period and sent the game into overtime when Ryan Kesler deflected a shot from the right point by Henrik Sedin.

And that goal was tainted, because it came after a faceoff in the San Jose zone because of an icing call that the Sharks argued -- and TV replays supported -- should have been waved off because the puck hit Canucks forward Daniel Sedin as it headed down the ice.

"It happens real fast, maybe hard to catch with the naked eye," Sharks coach Todd McLellan said. "Obviously an error. But there's nothing we're doing about it now. We were yelling and screaming, but it wasn't going to change."

Earlier goals by Sharks center Patrick Marleau and Vancouver right wing Alexandre Burrows set the stage for the third-period and overtime dramatics as the Sharks were fighting to keep their season alive for at least another 48 hours.

The Sharks knew the odds weren't in their favor to reach the Stanley Cup finals after falling behind 3-1 in games. Before this series, 246 others had been at 3-1 in Stanley Cup history, with only 24 of the teams trailing -- or 9.75 percent -- coming back to win it.

McLellan tinkered with his top three lines at the start of the game and stayed with them throughout. He kept Joe Thornton -- who played well despite an injured shoulder -- and Patrick Marleau, but inserted Logan Couture at right wing on the top line. Ryane Clowe, Pavelski and Setoguchi formed the second line, leaving Dany Heatley, Kyle Wellwood and Torrey Mitchell on the third.

Vancouver took a 1-0 lead at 8:02 of the first period when Burrows' goal capped off a series of passes between the Sedin twins, Daniel and Henrik. San Jose failed to take advantage of a five-on-three opportunity that lasted 1:24 later in the period, but did score on the power play at 9:57 of the second when a shot from the right point by Dan Boyle was deflected past Luongo by Marleau.

The Sharks took their first lead of the game early in the third period when Pavelski and Setoguchi headed down the ice and defenseman Alexander Edler, the only Vancouver skater back, fell. At that point, Luongo came far out of the net to challenge the two Sharks, a strategy that failed when Pavelski guided the puck to Setoguchi, who didn't miss the open net.

The Sharks outshot Vancouver 36-20 in regulation and 20-14 in the more than 30 minutes of overtime, but no one in the Sharks locker room was taking comfort in a game well-played.

"Tough series," Thornton said. "We lost, and they go on. Disappointing right now. We had to win, but we didn't."

And Marleau rejected the suggestion that the Sharks could consider their season a success for having reached the conference finals a second consecutive year.

"No," Marleau corrected him. "Successful season for us is winning the cup. Anything short is not good enough."