Vancouver, British Columbia (My Sportsbook) - The right to advance will be on the line tonight when the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks tangle in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series at GM Place.

The winner of the contest will move on to play the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the conference finals. That set will begin Saturday in either Minnesota or Vancouver.

Minnesota, in its first trip to the playoffs, has obviously never been in a conference final, while Vancouver can secure its first berth since 1994, when the Canucks advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals.

The teams, who both played a Game 7 in the first round, are in this position because the Wild stayed alive with a 5-1 home victory in Game 6 less than 24 hours ago. Minny has won two straight elimination games after falling behind three games to one, and can become the first team ever to win two series in the same postseason after sitting in a 3-1 hole. The Wild accomplished the feat last round against the Colorado Avalanche.

In Wednesday night's sixth game, Andrew Brunette scored a pair of power-play goals and Dwayne Roloson made 30 saves to lead the effort. Antti Laaksonen, Lubomir Sekeras and Darby Hendrickson tallied as well, while Cliff Ronning added three assists. Marian Gaborik chipped in a pair of helpers and now leads the league with 17 playoff points (9g, 8a).

"We live to fight another day," said Brunette, who scored the overtime winner in Game 7 versus Colorado. "We get to play one game. If you asked us at the start of the series if we want a one-game series, we would have taken it."

In the last two games, Minnesota has shunned its reputation of being merely a defensive club by outscoring the Canucks a combined 12-3. And now the Wild get to go back on the road, where they are 5-2 this postseason.

Roloson, who has won all three Minnesota games this series, is trying to mirror what teammate Manny Fernandez did last round. Fernandez started and won the final three games against the Avalanche, while Roloson has won the last two versus Vancouver.

With a win tonight, the Wild can become just the second team to win six elimination games in a single playoff year. The 1975 New York Islanders posted eight victories with their backs against the wall.

Vancouver, meanwhile, hopes one trend from the regular season holds true tonight. The Canucks have not lost more than two games in a row this entire season.

However, for the Canucks to avoid elimination several things need to be improved upon. The first of which is discipline, as the Wild bring in the league's top playoff power play (14-for-55), and went 3-for-5 with the man advantage on Wednesday.

Next is goaltender Dan Cloutier, who has been awful in the last two games, surrendering a total of 11 goals on 44 shots.

Last is All-Star Todd Bertuzzi, who has not scored a goal in eight consecutive games. The team's big three of Bertuzzi, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison has combined for a meager three goals this series.

The one thing the Canucks can take solace in is that they weren't dominated quite as much as the scoreboard would indicate in Game 6. They carried the first period, outshooting the Wild 12-4, and were still in the game until Minnesota broke away in the third frame.

"I've said all along I don't think momentum carries over from one game to the next," said Canucks' veteran Trevor Linden. "We have to believe in our system, get back to it and play the way we did in the first period."

Vancouver is 4-2 all-time in seventh games.