It’s a Wild Finish for Minnesota, 3-2

Sergei Zholtok and Wes Walz scored just over a minute apart early in the third period and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2, Sunday night at Vancouver, Canada, to tie their second-round Western Conference playoff series.

Marian Gaborik had a goal and an assist and Pascal Dupuis had two assists for the Wild, which goes home for Game 3 on Tuesday and Game 4 on Friday. Vancouver won the opener, 4-3, in overtime Friday.

After the Canucks staged a furious flurry in the closing seconds for the second consecutive game, tempers flared after the buzzer and several fights broke out near the benches.

Five players were given misconducts, including a game misconduct handed out to Wild defenseman Willie Mitchell. He had been sent off for roughing seven seconds earlier and came back onto the ice.

The Canucks, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the third period in Game 1, pulled goalie Dan Cloutier with two minutes left. They got to within a goal when Mattias Ohlund scored at 18:28 of the third period.

Trent Klatt nearly tied the score on a scramble with 54.7 seconds left, but Mitchell closed his hand on the puck in the crease.

The infraction went undetected, and a video review showed that the puck never crossed the line.

Zholtok ended a 1-1 tie at 1:02 of the third period, seconds after a Vancouver penalty for too many men on the ice expired. He cut down the middle untouched and one-timed Andrew Brunette’s pass from behind the net past Cloutier.

Dwayne Roloson, out since Game 4 of the first round because of a groin injury, replaced Manny Fernandez in the Wild net and made 30 saves.

He was 2-0-1 against Vancouver this season and 6-2-2 in his career.

Philadelphia 2, Ottawa 0 -- Roman Cechmanek stopped 33 shots at Ottawa, Canada, for his second career playoff shutout and the Flyers tied the best-of-seven second-round Eastern Conference series, 1-1.

Cechmanek made up for his dismal performance in Friday’s 4-2 loss -- he stopped only 13 of 17 shots -- by posting his first shutout in this year’s playoffs.

Simon Gagne scored early in the first period and Mark Recchi scored late against Patrick Lalime, who made 21 saves.

The Senators, who had an NHL-best 113 points this season, have never won the second game after opening a series with a victory. They are 0-3.