Vancouver Erupts in Rioting After Canucks Lose

Hockey fans enraged by the Canucks' 4-0 home loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals went on a rampage in downtown Vancouver. The mood turned ugly downtown as some 100,000 fans watched the game's final minutes at bars and restaurants, and on giant outdoor screens. Groups of angry Canucks fans hurled beer bottles at the screens, chanted obscenities, and set cars and garbage cans ablaze as peaceful fans fled, the Province reports. Riot police used tear gas to disperse angry mobs amid widespread looting and brawling as the mayhem spread.

"It is unfortunate that this will be the lasting memory of what was a great Stanley Cup run in Vancouver," said a police spokesman. The riot, which witnesses say was caused by a small but determined—and very drunk—minority of fans, is the biggest outbreak of civil disorder in the Canadian city since 1994, when the Canucks lost Game 7 to the New York Rangers. "It's terrible," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "This city and province has a lot to be proud of, the team we have and the guys we have in here. It's too bad." (More riots stories.)