"A gritty come-from-behind overtime win by the Vancouver Canucks was tempered by the sight of defenceman Kevin Bieksa walking with a pronounced limp in the dressing room after Saturday night's game against the Calgary Flames.

Bieksa went down in the first period of the game, which the Canucks won 5-4 when Pavol Demitra scored at 3:54 of overtime.

Bieksa was having difficulty putting any weight on his swollen left knee, which he injured in a collision with Calgary forward Wayne Primeau. Bieksa, who missed 47 games with a right leg injury last season, said he likely won't know until Sunday just how serious the injury is.

"It's tough to say, it's just a bit sore with some swelling," Bieksa said. "We'll find out tomorrow, I guess. We'll have a few more tests and we'll find out for sure."

Bieksa's injury was the only downer in a game where once again the Canucks demonstrated plenty of heart. They were down 3-1 after the first period, but spoiled Calgary's home-opener with some spirited play the rest of the way.

A couple of fights early in the second period by fourth-liners Darcy Hordichuk and Rick Rypien seemed to help turn the tide in Vancouver's favour. Hordichuk got the better of Calgary's Andre Roy, while Rypien absolutely destroyed Brandon Prust in his fight.

Rypien then got Vancouver's comeback started when he converted a pass from behind the net by linemate Ryan Johnson at 9:32 of the second.

"This was a huge character win for us," said Vancouver centre Ryan Kesler, who tied the game 3-3 just over a minute after Rypien had scored. "Going down 3-1 it was tough going into the locker room, but we have a bunch of character guys in this room and we all just collectively took it upon ourselves and said we have to get better. And we did.""