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Another Blackhawks heart attack: Late rally ends in OT loss

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Need an oxygen mask yet? On the verge of a nervous breakdown? Heartbeats per minute zooming into the 140s?

Blackhawks and Ducks fans probably are answering in the affirmative to each and every one of those questions.

A Western Conference finals series that seems destined to be ranked among the best in Stanley Cup playoff history reached another level Monday at the Honda Center.

Chapter 5 of this epic went to Bruce Boudreau's Anaheim Ducks, 5-4 in overtime in front of 17,286 mostly happy fans, but not before on-call doctors probably were fielding calls from all over Chicagoland and Southern California.

Matt Beleskey scored the winning goal when he pounded in a rebound of a Ryan Kesler shot 45 seconds into extra time, giving Anaheim a 3-2 series lead and putting the Ducks 1 win from the Stanley Cup Final.

Game 6 is at the United Center on Wednesday.

"That's the biggest goal I've ever scored," Beleskey said. "It's a great feeling any time you do that, especially at home."

The Hawks looked destined to lose in regulation, especially after Anaheim went ahead 3-0 less than 15 minutes into the game. But they clawed back with big second-period goals from Teuvo Teravainen and Brent Seabrook to make it 3-2.

Patrick Maroon made it 4-2 with 5:15 left, but anybody counting the Hawks out at that point hasn't been paying attention for the past six years.

A significant contingent of Hawks fans in attendance erupted when Jonathan Toews beat Frederik Andersen twice in just 82 seconds - the second coming from a ridiculous angle and bouncing in off Andersen's left skate with 00:38 showing on the clock, and suddenly it was 4-4.

"It doesn't look very good and Johnny comes up with 2 gigantic goals to give us a chance to win," coach Joel Quenneville said. "I think his career in big-game moments, Johnny would let them speak for themselves."

Center Ryan Getzlaf admitted the Ducks were "down" in the dressing room, but Boudreau told them to turn those emotions into anger.

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

That's exactly what happened when Jakob Silfverberg found Kesler, who skated in on Corey Crawford and unleashed a shot that bounced to Beleskey. The 26-year-old winger fired it home and that was the game.

"It looked like they were in the middle of a change, and we caught them off guard," Kesler said.

In the first period, Cam Fowler, Kesler and Sami Vatanen all beat Crawford with Fowler (5:10) and Kesler (5:42) scoring just 32 seconds apart.

It was the seventh time in 15 postseason games that the Hawks have allowed 3-plus goals in one period. They had won four of their first six times that occurred but couldn't pull off the feat Monday.

"Not a good way to start the game," said Patrick Sharp, who assisted on the Hawks' first 2 goals. "They're going to come out here and start well in this building all the time. It seemed like they were skating faster, winning more battles to start the game.

"Three-nothing's a tough hole to climb out of, but to battle back and to force overtime shows the belief … that we have in each other. Unfortunate to lose it in overtime there, but we'll be ready for the next game."

This was the first time in the Joel Quenneville era that a Hawks team tied at 2-2 in a playoff series lost a Game 5 or 6. They had been 14-0 before Monday night.

"I think going into overtime we were feeling that the game was in our hands," Toews said, "and we're going to get that next break, so it's unfortunate that we couldn't take advantage of it."

Game 6 is on the horizon.

Watch at your own risk.

• Follow John's reports on Twitter @johndietzdh.

Simple play dooms Hawks in overtime

Images: Ducks beat Hawks 5-4 in OT in game 5

Game 4 a big spark for offense

3 stars of the game

1. Ryan Kesler, Ducks: Scored a goal and assisted on the game-winner. Monster night.

2. Matt Beleskey, Ducks: Pounds home game-winning goal 45 seconds into overtime.

3. Jonathan Toews, Hawks: Captain ties game late in the third period with 2 goals in 83 seconds.

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