Ducks fly high after clipping Wings in marathon
DETROIT (Reuters) - Todd Marchant scored 1:15 into triple overtime to lift the Anaheim Ducks to 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday, tying up their Western Conference semi-final before the teams head to California.
The Ducks now fly home for Games Three and Four on Tuesday and Thursday with the best-of-seven series deadlocked at 1-1.
Having played the equivalent of almost two complete games, Marchant ended the marathon when he raced into the Detroit zone and rifled a shot over netminder Chris Osgood's outstretched glove to stun the capacity crowd at Joe Louis Arena.
It marked the first playoff loss for the Red Wings after a first round sweep of the Columbus Blue Jackets and a 3-2 Game One win over Anaheim on Friday.
The eighth seeded Ducks, who knocked off the top ranked San Jose Sharks in the opening round, will be happy to leave the Motor City having earned a split with the Stanley Cup champions.
"The guys battled all night," Marchant told reporters.
"I saw the defenseman kind of slide over and I just tried to fire it back to the far side and fortunately it went in."
After each team scored twice in the opening period, the contest turned into a goaltending duel between Anaheim's Jonas Hiller and Red Wings veteran Osgood.
HILLER SPECTACULAR
Playing in his first Stanley Cup playoffs, Hiller was spectacular as the Red Wings blasted 62 shots at the Swiss netminder while Osgood faced 46 salvos.
Hiller was particular sharp during the first overtime, as the Red Wings outshot Anaheim 14-6.
Brad Stuart gave the Wings a fortunate early lead when the puck deflected off his skate then off Anaheim defenseman James Wisniewski past a helpless Hiller.
However, the Ducks hit back with two goals in 34 seconds, Ryan Getzlaf tapping in a rebound and Chris Pronger hammering a shot from the point past a screened Osgood.
Mikael Samuelsson sent the teams into the first intermission deadlocked at 2-2 when he backhanded a shot between Hiller's pads.
The Ducks had the only goal of the second period, Ryan Carter converting a power play chance when he controlled a rebound off the back boards and slammed the puck into a gapping Detroit net.
The Red Wings Johan Franzen, who has 17 goals in his last 22 playoff games, notched one of his biggest early in the third period rifling wrist shot past to tie the game and send it to overtime.
(Writing by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by John O'Brien)
