After 20 minutes of play, it looked like the Ducks would run away in game five and easily take the series lead back to Chicago. Three unanswered first period goals, including two in 32 seconds. While the Chicago Blackhawks wouldn’t go quietly, Anaheim persevered to win 5-4 and take a 3-2 lead in the series and can win a trip to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 2007 with a win in Wednesday night’s game six.

Anaheim struck first on a goal by Cam Fowler just 5:10 into the game. Nate Thompson and Andrew Cogliano assisted on the defenseman’s second goal of the playoffs. Just 32 seconds later Ryan Kesler showed why the Ducks gave up so much to get him this off-season with his sixth postseason goal, assisted by Jakob Silfverberg and Francois Beauchemin. Both goals were great shots more than bad goaltending. After nearly nine scoreless minutes, Sami Vatanen scored the third first period goal as he ripped a shot from the top of the circle past Corey Crawford stick side. Ryan Getzlaf picked up the assist. 

With nothing going their way, Chicago wasted little time engineering their own momentum in the second. Just 71 seconds in Teuvo Teravainen scored his second goal of the playoffs as the Ducks turned it over in the center of the ice and he ripped a shot past an unsuspecting Frederik Andersen and scored just below the glove with Antoine Vermette and Patrick Sharp assisting. Chicago had a great chance to pull within a goal on a turnover later in the period, and Jonathan Toews took it at Andersen, tried to go stick side past the pad but Andersen made a great stop. Eventually Chicago would get that elusive second goal as Brent Seabrook scored with just 25 seconds left in the period for his fifth postseason goal, assisted by Teravainen and Sharp.

In the third, tension was high and both goaltenders were on their game. Neither team broke through until the Ducks put one on the board 14:45 into the third as Ryan Getzlaf stole the puck, made a perfect pass to Vatanen in the slot who had a shot but passed it Patrick Maroon in the crease for an easy goal, Maroon’s sixth of the playoffs. The Ducks were up 4-2, but it was not over. In the final two minutes, Chicago pulled Corey Crawford out of the net and Toews responded. He scored his sixth goal of the playoffs off a rebound, assisted by Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith. Just 72 seconds later, Toews scored again to even it up at 4-4 with a goal that he shot from behind the goal line, which went off Andersen’s skate and into the net. Andrew Shaw and Seabrook assisted.

Going into overtime, Chicago had all the momentum and looked poised to steal a game they had no business winning. But the comeback fell short as Anaheim nailed the game winner just 45 seconds into the extra session. Chicago lost to puck in the neutral zone and Anaheim flew down the ice. Ryan Kesler put the initial shot on goal, Crawford made the save but it produced a juicy rebound for Matt Beleskey, who was streaking down the ice and in perfect position to nail the game winner home past the diving Crawford. Silvferberg also assisted.

Neither offense produced a crazy number of shots in the game. In fact, both teams had 28 shots on goal. Obviously Crawford let one more in than Andersen did, which made the difference.

Emerson Etem, who had played all four prior games, was scratched tonight in favor of Tomas Fleischmann, who got 19 shifts and 10:14 total ice time. The lack of depth on the blue line continues to haunt Chicago, as Kimmo Timonen had a -2 rating in 14 shifts, 8:06 total ice time and Kyle Cumiskey had -1 in 14 shifts and 10:48 total ice time. Keith, Seabrook, Johnny Oduya and Niklas Hjalmarsson all played at least 33 shifts tonight. The only other players over 30 were Fowler and Simon Desperes of the Ducks.  

Game six will be in Chicago, with Anaheim having a chance to close out the series. Chicago was down 3-2 in game six last season in the western finals against the Los Angeles Kings and managed to force a game seven, can they do so again this year? We will find out on Wednesday night.