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Matt Beleskey wins Game 5 OT thriller for Ducks after Blackhawks' rally

Matt Beleskey wins Game 5 OT thriller for Ducks after Blackhawks' rally

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau calmed down his wild band of Ducks in the break between the third period and overtime of Game 5.

"I said, it’s our turn. Don’t be upset and hang your heads. Get angry. Get mad that we sort of pissed it away a little bit," Boudreau said. "Just come back and play the way you did in the first period and things will work out."

The Anaheim Ducks were able to extinguish Chicago’s comeback effort in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final in a 5-4 overtime win. The Blackhawks scored two goals in the final two minutes of regulation, but the Ducks were the aggressor early in the extra session, mostly because of Boudreau's Patches O'Houlihan-type speech. 

Matt Beleskey scored the overtime winner on a rebound off a shot by Ryan Kesler for the Ducks just 45 seconds into the extra session.

Chicago forced the extra 45 ticks on the clock with a furious third-period rally led by their captain.

With 1:50 left in the third period, Jonathan Toews put the score at 4-3 with a one-timer blast.

With 37.2 seconds left, Toews banked a shot on a bad angle off Ducks goaltender Frederik Andersen to knot the game at 4-4

It was a one-man show by Toews, who kept the play simple for Chicago. He got the puck deep and tried to fire shots on goal.

"Jonny comes up with two gigantic goals and gave us a chance to win," Chicago coach Joel Quenneville said. "I think his career in big game moments, Jonny will let them speak for themselves."

Before then, it seemed the Ducks had the game in the bag. Patrick Maroon's goal at the 14:45 mark of the third period made the game 4-2. It appeared the deeper and stronger Ducks were primed to go up in the series, as they had already stalled a prior Chicago comeback

With 24.8 seconds left in the second period Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook fired one-timed a shot past Andersen’s glove. This put the game at 3-2 in favor of Anaheim.

Andersen didn't have his best game with 24 saves on 28 Chicago shots on goal, but the Ducks still found a way.

"Even midway through that game when we scored the first goal and then the second one, we were feeling really good about ourselves," Toews said. "We returned the favor and stole the momentum to a certain degree and even though they scored three goals early in the first, we knew there was a lot of time and we had to find our game and get our four lines going."

Just 1:11 into the second period, forward Teuvo Teravainen fired a wrist shot Andersen flubbed a little on his glove side. This put the game at 3-1 in favor of the Ducks.

The Blackhawks fired their first shot on goal with 3:40 left in the first period, which was a dominating performance by Anaheim.

With 5:23 left in the first period, defenseman Sami Vatanen fired a shot from the point past Crawford to make the game 3-0. Chicago had still yet to record a shot on goal at this time.

At the 5:42 mark, Ryan Kesler deflected a fluttering puck by Jakob Slifverberg to put the game at 2-0.

At the 5:10 mark of the first period Anaheim struck first. Cam Fowler fired a shot form the point past Chicago's Corey Crawford. The goal was created when Andrew Cogliano and Nate Thompson outworked Chicago in the corner and Thompson fed the puck to Fowler.

In that first frame, the Ducks outshot Chicago 11-3.

"I mean, both teams are tremendously resilient," Boudreau said. "We score three goals, whatever, last game, and Chicago comes right back and ties it up, ends up winning it. They score two goals in the last minute to tie it up. We have the wherewithal to dig deep and come back in overtime."

Game 6 of the series is back in Chicago on Wednesday night.

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