Ducks Take Series Lead with OT win over Red Wings

The Anaheim Ducks never led on Sunday but they didn’t need to. Teemu Selanne scored with 8:03 remaining in overtime to give the Ducks a 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings, pushing them to a 3-2 series lead in their Western Conference Final matchup.

Selanne’s goal came after Andy MacDonald forced a turnover by Detroit blueliner Andreas Lilja. Selanne picked up the loose puck and skated in alone on goalie Dominik Hasek, who sprawled out to cover the bottom half of the net before Selanne roofed a shot over him.

Lilja had scored Detroit’s only goal of the game at 6:13 of the second period, blasting a shot past Anaheim netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere off a pass from Dan Cleary, who had circled back after gaining the Anaheim zone to allow Lilja time to catch up with the play.

The Ducks tied the game with only 48 seconds remaining in regulation. On the power play and with Giguere on the bench for an extra attacker, Scott Niedermayer wristed a shot from the inside edge of the left circle off of the stick of defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and over Hasek’s shoulder.

It was the lone power play goal of the game. Anaheim had five chances with the extra skater while the Red Wings had seven.

Anaheim outshot Detroit 8-3 in the overtime period but the Red Wings totalled 37 shots to the Ducks’ 26.

Game six of the series will be on Tuesday from the Honda Center in Anaheim. If the Red Wings win, game seven will be on Thursday from Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.