Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

In Game 1, the Canucks played as expected. And that's a good thing.

VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Canucks couldn't have ordered up a better script. The win is good, of course. But how the way they won it might be even better.

Their 2010 playoffs opened Thursday night with a gritty, nearly 70-minute effort, against a goalie who came about two inches away from stealing Game 1 on the road. But they didn't give away those final couple of inches, and were rewarded with a victory earned on patience and playoff perseverance, two traits that can take you a long ways at this time of year.

"It's a different feeling in this dressing room this year," Henrik Sedin said, moments after dishing a lovely pass to Mikael Samuelsson for the OT winner in a 3-2 Canucks victory. "We're not getting frustrated, even though some guys didn't show up on the score sheet tonight. We're still sticking to the system."

In this spring of early upsets, the Canucks refused to be Washington, San Jose or New Jersey, slamming the door on any thoughts that the Los Angeles Kings might ride their acrobatic netminder Jonathan Quick to an early lead in this Western Conference quarter-final.

Vancouver outshot the Kings 13-2 in the third period but couldn't score, and really owned the back half of this game. "We didn't make any plays in the second half of the game," admitted L.A.'s Jarret Stoll.

In fact, without two bone-headed penalties by plodding defenceman Andrew Alberts, Roberto Luongo may have been toweling off after a tidy, 20-shot shutout.

Instead, he was replaying the save of the playoffs thus far. It was a contortionist's special he made in OT, twisting and flipping to shovel a Jack Johnson shot to safety exactly as the puck passed on top of the goal line.

"Once I swiped it off the line ... I knew it wasn't in. I was definitely panicking," Luongo said.

Moments later Samuelsson was coolly depositing his second of the night past Quick, a one-timer through traffic that was shot with purpose. It was for Samuelsson, who was brought in last summer specifically for his playoff pedigree, shot No. 7 on the night.

Asked if the shot felt right at the time, he laughed. "It always feels right to shoot, for me," he said. "For me, always."

These are the kinds of games that have to be won in the playoffs, if you're going to accomplish anything in the NHL. And the players who won this one for Vancouver are the players that are expected to pull out games like this. The Sedins each had two points, Samuelsson two goals, and Luongo was there at the precise moment that he was needed the most.

"He didn't have a lot of work in the third period," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said of his goalie. "He had one save to make in overtime and he made it. And his teammates came back and rewarded him."

Look at the comments this morning from Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau, whose best player - Alex Ovechkin - went without a shot in a losing effort in which his team had 47 shots on goal.

For Vigneault however, his best players were his best players. It's a well worn cliché, but when it plays out the way it should it allows a coach to get some sleep at night.

"It was a real quality save, and it was a big goal (by Samuelsson). I hope that experience will rub off on another player or two," he said.

The lasting impression from this game was that Los Angeles was outshot 44-27 on the night, vastly out chanced and generally outplayed - yet they were two inches away from the victory. These types of scenarios don't stay this way, however.

The Kings are going to have to play a whole lot better on Saturday night, or that necessary tool of the underdog - the split on the road - will be about as real as a few other things we can think of down in Hollywood.

Vancouver? They did their job in Game 1, and to the winners go the spoils - however meager they may be at the moment.

"We have a little bit of confidence - we know we can beat them. But that's all," said Samuelsson.

It may not be much, but it is surely something the Kings can not yet say.