Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

LOS ANGELES — Alain Vigneault was asked about how he came to put the Bros. Sedin on his top penalty killing unit Wednesday night at the Staples Center. For the first time in a long while, he broke into a smile and some self-deprecating humour.

"They'd scored six in a row on us," he said, all but putting his palms in the air. "Ya gotta try something."

It is easier to laugh now when you are the Vancouver Canucks coach, easier to breathe if you are one of the many who see this small window of time as a key moment in the evolution of this group.

The litmus test arrived Wednesday: Down 2-1 in the series, playing on the road, the goaltending flagging and the Sedins not producing. This was a rare chance to look right into the heart of this roster and see how steady it ticks when everything is on the line.

Who was going to be the hero? As it turns out there were many, and they were all the players a Canucks fans hoped they would be.

"This can be a big turnaround for us," Daniel Sedin said after a 6-4 win in Game 4 evened this series at two games apiece. "But at the same time, we've done nothing but take back the home ice advantage."

Truly, none of this will be worth a tube of sock tape if the Canucks don't get past the Los Angeles Kings in what is now a best-of-three — and a hell of a series, we might add. But that's a story for another day.

For now let's stay in the present, and examine what happened when this Canucks team faced a 3-2 deficit after 40 minutes, and the distinct possibility of going down 3-1 in the series.

Vigneault had laid out the game plan the day before: "You take Roberto Luongo, you take Sami Salo, Alex Edler, Ryan Kesler, [Alex] Burrows, Hank and Danny — you take those guys and put your trust in them. They're ready for this moment. This is their time and they're going to get it done for us."

Luongo made three enormous saves before Daniel set up Mikael Samuelsson to tie the game at 3-3. Then Salo appeared with a trademark slapper, assists to the Sedins. After Wayne Simmonds tied the game for L.A., the Sedins put Vancouver ahead for good — Henrik, from Daniel — racking up five points in what was the most important period of hockey all season for the Canucks.

"Looking back, (Luongo) saved the game for us," Daniel said, after he and his brother defined the term "clutch" with their third period. "It's great for the guys to come back, and play the way we did. We showed some composure, some character."

They showed a ton of guts in this one, did the Canucks. Vigneault had predicted it, but you had to know that deep down under all that confidence lay just a smidgen of hope, when he laid it out the day before.

"I've known these guys for quite some time and I know how bad they want this," Vigneault said after a game where his club erased three Kings' leads.

His penalty killers had given up four consecutive powerplay goals when the game began, and the Sedins went to their coach and asked to help.

"It's tough to see a lot of pucks go in," Henrik said. "We've both played PK before, and we wanted to do something. He gave us a chance."

Some would say it worked the other way around.

"We've kind of limited their opportunities ... played real right against them," Kings captain Dustin Brown said of the Sedins. "Tonight we maybe let up. I mean, those players ... they're going to make plays and score goals."

When the Canucks needed it most, it was Vigneault's line juggling that made the difference in the game, not L.A. coach Terry Murray. Salo was back, blasting away. Even Pavol Demitra emerged from the hole he's been in since the Olympics, overshadowing his countryman Michal Handzus, who came back to earth for L.A.

As a team, the Canucks looked this tough situation in the eye and stared it down. Nothing has been accomplished yet. But if you don't get over the first hurdle, you'll never get a chance to see how you respond to the next one, and the next one.

"They showed what their team can do," admitted L.A. defenceman Matt Greene. "That's a third period that we wanted to avoid against them. Now we've got to learn from that, and respect it, and come back the next game with a way to slow them down a little bit."

Ahhhh. Now it is the Kings who are talking about slowing things down.

My, how one good period can change the outlook of a series.