Being at the right place at the right time allowed Mikael Samuelsson to be the overtime hero Thursday night.
Samuelsson scored his second goal of the night at 8:52 of the extra period as the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in the opening of their NHL first-round playoff series.
Samuelsson was alone in the slot when he took a pass from Henrik Sedin and ripped a shot that beat Kings' goaltender Jonathan Quick.
"I just jumped on the ice and tried to stay pretty high," said Samuelsson, who came to the Canucks from Detroit as a free agent last summer. "He (Sedin) had it behind the net and saw me.
"I fired the shot and I was lucky. It always feels right shooting."
Vancouver leads the Western Conference quarter-final 1-0. The second game in the best-of-seven series will be played Saturday night.
The Kings came close to ending it with about six minutes gone in the overtime. Jack Johnson fired a puck went off goaltender Roberto Luongo's blocker and dribbled toward the goal-line. A sprawling Luongo was able to reach behind him and swipe the puck away.
On the play, Luongo's stick got caught in his skate. He was able to free it before the Kings got a shot away.
The Kings were outshot 44-27 but still gave the Canucks all they could handle.
"We've got to minimize the turnovers," said King forward Ryan Smyth. "They are a transition team, they thrive on that.
"For the most part I thought we played pretty decent."
Modin tied the match at 13:06 of the second period during a five-minute power-play.
The Canucks looked comfortable with a 2-1 lead, and were beginning to take control of the game, until Andrew Alberts drove Brad Richardson into the boards from behind, delivering an elbow to the head in the process.
Alberts was given a boarding major and a game misconduct.
The Kings went to work on the power play. Modin took a pass from Alexander Frolov from behind the goal-line, then rifled a shot that beat Luongo.
Vancouver controlled most of the third period, outshooting Los Angeles 13-2. The young Kings didn't panic and weathered the storm.
Not all the action was on the ice.
A scuffle in the stands late in the third period resulted in five people being ejected. One fan suffered a cut forehead and was attended briefly by paramedics but stayed to watch the rest of the game
All four of the regulation time goals came in the second period.
Los Angeles opened the scoring when Stoll beat Luongo with a shot to the stick side.
Daniel Sedin made a couple of pretty plays as the Canucks stormed back for the lead.
On Vancouver's first goal Sedin was battling for the puck in front of the Kings' net during a power play. He used his skate to kick the puck back to Samuelsson, who blew a shot past Quick.
Daniel teamed up with twin brother Henrik, who won the NHL regular-season scoring race, for the Canucks' second goal.
Daniel was in full flight when Henrik feathered him a perfect pass. He went to his forehand, then lifted a backhand shot past Quick.
Daniel celebrated the goal by pumping his first. The towel-waving, sellout crowd of 18,810 began chanting "MVP, MVP" when Henrik's assist was announced.
Henrik was involved in a bizarre incident with the Kings' Anze Kopitar in the second period. Kopitar got his stick up and it became wedged between Sedin's visor and helmet.
No penalty was called on the play even though a member of the Canuck training staff had to free Kopitar's stick from Sedin's helmet.
Quick, who was winless in his last eight start, looked solid early. He stopped a pair of Alex Burrows shots, one with a quick glove hand. He also got lucky when Samuelsson rang a shot off the crossbar behind him.
The Canucks won the Northwest Division championship and took the third seed in the Western Conference with 103 points, two more than the Kings.
The Kings came into the game with the league's second best road record of 24 wins. The Canucks set a franchise record of 30 wins at home during the season.
Notes: Pavol Demitra played in his 84th playoff game, the most of any Canuck. ...Aaron Rome (Anaheim) and Mikael Samuelsson (Detroit 2008) are the only Canucks with Stanley Cup rings. ...The Kings and Canucks have met in three previous playoff series with L.A. winning in 1993 and 1991 while Vancouver won in 1982.
