Cory Schneider Comes Up Huge as Vancouver Canucks Stay Alive Against Kings

This NHL postseason has been almost exclusively about goaltending; or lack thereof.

Martin Brodeur has been benched, Mike Smith got rocked and Marc-Andre Fleury and Ilya Bryzgalov have made a mockery of the goaltending position by allowing more goals than humanly possible.

In Vancouver, however, Cory Schneider has emerged himself as the No. 1 netminder; at least for the rest of this series.

After Roberto Luongo allowed eight goals in the first two games of the series, head coach Alain Vigneault knew it was time to make a change. Luongo was scrutinized after his play in last year's Stanley Cup Finals where he was completely outmatched by Tim Thomas and with a solid Schneider waiting on the bench, the decision had to be made.

And what a change it has been.

Schneider has only allowed two goals since taking the starting role in Game 3, including stopping 43-of-44 shots in Game 4. He's even taking the attention away from his counterpart Jonathan Quick.

A strong second period by the Vancouver Canucks helped them avoid the sweep and bought them some time to make this an interesting series heading into Game 5 in Vancouver.

Schneider was solid during the regular season racking up 20 wins and posting a goals against average of less than two, giving the Canucks one of the most lethal goalie combos in the league.

Waiting on the bench is Luongo, who seems to be in this same predicament every season. As it stands, Luongo has now found himself as the Robin to Schneider's Batman.

On a night that saw Philadelphia's goalies give up 10 goals, Schneider played aggressively, shutting the Los Angeles Kings down and helping the Canucks live to see another day.

For the rest of the series it will be Quick and Schneider going head-to-head.

What a treat.