Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Coming into Game 5, John Gibson has been spectacular for the Anaheim Ducks.
After a 39 save performance on Monday night, the 20 year-old’s legend continues to grow.
Behind another superb performance from Gibson, the Ducks became the first team to win a game at home in their second round series as they held off the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 at Honda Center.
Anaheim now has a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series as the teams head north to Los Angeles for Game 6.
After only recording three shots during the final two periods in Game 4, the Ducks came out flying in Game 5. After Kings’ defenseman Jake Muzzin blew a tire along the boards, Daniel Winnik picked up the loose puck and fed Nick Bonino who rifled the puck under the pads of Jonathan Quick for a 1-0 lead.
But following the early lead, Anaheim became sloppy and unorganized. After a poor line change, Trevor Lewis pushed the puck past Sami Vatanen and fired the puck into the back of the net to knot the score up at 1-1. The rookie netminder had no chance as the puck glanced slightly of Bryan Allen and past Gibson before the 20 year-old could react.
The second stanza was an eventful one with a total of four goals scored between the two squads. The first two tallies of the period came from the Ducks only 1:23 apart. With Justin Williams in the box for hooking, Mathieu Perreault finished off a nice pass from Teemu Selanne with a one-timer that skipped off Devante Smith-Pelly‘s skate and past the left pad of Quick for a 2-1 lead. It was Selanne’s fifth point in six games.
Smith-Pelly converted shortly after for his second goal of the game and third goal of the series. Ryan Getzlaf sent over a beautiful pass to the streaking Smith-Pelly who deked Quick to the right and came back with the backhand for the goal to make it 3-1 Anaheim.
Later on in the period, Jakob Silfverberg joined the party with a goal of his own as he pounded home a rebound to give the Ducks a three-goal cushion.
With just under three minutes left in the second, Smith-Pelly was whistled for a four-minute high-sticking penalty on Drew Doughty. Los Angeles would capitalize with the man advantage as the hero of Game 1 Marian Gaborik hurled a wrist shot into the twine to cut the deficit to two.
The third period saw plenty of four-on-four hockey, but neither team converted with the extra space. But with just under six minutes to go, Gaborik made things interesting as he got a stick to the backhand of Dustin Brown and tipped it in.
However, the Ducks and Gibson stood tall in the final seconds to get a crucial victory in Game 5.
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