Ducks stay alive with 5-2 victory

It isn’t time to pull the plug on the defending Stanley Cup champions just yet.

A Ducks team facing elimination for the first time in two postseasons finally displayed the energy that was missing for much of this Western Conference quarterfinal series against the Dallas.

The result is the Ducks will live another day in these playoffs as a 5-2 victory in Game 5 on Friday night at the Honda Center ensured that they will head to Dallas for Game 6 on Sunday night.

“All we’ve got to worry about right now is the next game,” goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. “Try to get a win the next game.”

The Stars still hold a 3-2 series lead, but they couldn’t deliver the knockout blow. Not on a night full of inspired performances by the Ducks.

Corey Perry delivered a goal in his second game since returning from a severed tendon injury. Ryan Getzlaf and Teemu Selanne breathed life into their power play with goals to break a 1-1 tie.

Sean O’Donnell shook off his costly turnover in Game 4 and scored a third-period insurance goal along with assisting on Perry’s first-period score. Todd Marchant capped an impressive night by the Ducks with an empty-net goal.

“I think everybody knows we’re capable of playing better hockey,” Selanne said. “Still, I think we can do a better job.”

But the Ducks’ most valuable player in Game 5 was in goal.

No one has epitomized their playoff success in recent years more than Giguere and the goaltender put aside his own struggles to make sure they wouldn’t go down without a fight.

Giguere carried a 31-13 postseason record and a stellar 1.96 goals-against average into these playoffs. Yet he gave up 14 goals through the first four games and Marty Turco, his counterpart, has easily been the better goalie in this series.

Until now.

A night after giving up two backbreaking goals in a 3-1 Game 4 loss, Giguere was brilliant. He made 40 saves, several of them point-blank stops that kept the Ducks afloat in a tight game through the first two periods.

Mattias Norstrom and Mike Ribeiro did get shots by him but that was it. There was no question that Giguere would start, even on consecutive nights.

“It’s obviously not the easiest thing to do,” he said. “I felt really good, better than yesterday. Maybe I need less sleep.”

In one first-period sequence, Giguere robbed Ribeiro with a diving glove save and turned Brad Richards and Stu Barnes aside with picture-perfect positioning on redirection tries at the net.

“It was unbelievable,” Getzlaf said of his netminder. “He made those saves. That makes a difference.”

Said Coach Randy Carlyle, “I thought Giguere was the best player on the ice tonight.”

The Ducks fed off his performance and would take the lead for good in the second period.

Getzlaf toyed with the puck near the left faceoff dot as Scott Niedermayer jostled with Dallas rookie Matt Niskanen. As Niskanen turned toward Getzlaf, the Ducks’ center snapped a wrist shot between the defenseman’s legs and Turco never saw the puck as it hit in the net for a 2-1 lead.

Penalties taken by the Stars’ Niskanen and Trevor Daley gave the Ducks a two-man advantage in the opening minute of the third. Selanne converted his second goal of the playoffs when he banged in a carom off the glass created by Chris Pronger’s hard shot.

Ribeiro cut the lead to 3-2 but O’Donnell jumped up into the play and scored with 7:55 left for a 4-2 lead. O’Donnell also had an assist on Perry’s goal in the first period.

“It certainly felt good,” O’Donnell said. “Whether it’s good or bad, you don’t want to dwell on it for too long.”

The Ducks swarmed Dallas from the outset and the effort would reap some dividends. Perry, who was out six weeks after being cut by the skate blade of Jose Theodore, gave them an emotional lift.

Perry finished serving a penalty for interfering with Turco when O’Donnell spotted him leaving the box. O’Donnell flipped the puck off the boards and got a fortunate bounce when it hopped past Daley at the blue line.

The puck came over to Perry, who picked it up and whipped a shot from the right faceoff circle between Turco’s pads to put a charge into the announced standing-room-only crowd of 17,199. It was Perry’s first goal since March 3 against Ottawa.

--

[email protected]