Bonino’s OT winner puts Red Wings on the brink of elimination

By Nick Barnowski –For the second consecutive game – and third time in the series – the Red Wings and Ducks went to overtime in Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

The only difference was that unlike in Games 2 and 4, the Ducks pulled this one out, as a Nick Bonino’s goal 1:54 into overtime gave Anaheim a 3-2 win and a 3-2 series lead.

Anaheim controlled the puck the entire overtime period, as the Wings could not get the puck out of their own zone. Anaheim defenseman Ben Lovejoy carried the puck alongside the boards and eventually worked his way near Jimmy Howard before passing it out in front of the net, where Bonino was there to tap it in.

The Ducks came out of the gate aggressively, forechecking hard to set the tempo early, but it backfired quickly.

After a second penalty for goaltender interference, assessed to Corey Perry, the Red Wings took advantage. Johan Franzen jammed the puck past Jonas Hiller to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.

Despite taking the lead, Anaheim’s 18-9 shot advantage in the first period would quickly catch up with the Wings.

Anaheim would tie the game at one with less than three minutes left in the period. A face-off win by David Steckel found the puck right on Kyle Palmieri’s stick near the blue line, where he fired a shot that got by Howard on the right-hand side.

In his third game since March 31, Mikael Samuelsson got his name on the scoresheet about midway through the second period.

Pavel Datsyuk, while laying down on the ice in his own zone, made an exit pass to Henrik Zetterberg, who then fired a shot on Hiller with Samuelsson there to put the rebound away to make the score 2-1.

Daniel Winnik took a five-minute major for boarding Daniel Cleary later in the second, but instead of fueling the Red Wings, the Ducks were the ones who took advantage.

The Wings only managed one shot on the power play, and then Brendan Smith took a penalty to make it four-on-four for about a minute. Shortly after, Ryan Getzlaf carried the puck into the slot untouched and sniped a shot past Howard to tie it at two goals a piece entering the third.

Howard made 31 saves in the loss, while Hiller stopped 29 shots.

Game 6 is Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.