FROM DETROIT — Never had Jonas Hiller stood in goal for so long or faced 62 shots, each carrying the potential to swing the Ducks' second-round playoff series prohibitively toward the Red Wings.
Back home in the Swiss League, playoff games that are tied after one overtime are settled by shootouts. Not so in the NHL. So before Sunday's first overtime -- and then the second and third -- he drank water to stay hydrated, ate bananas for energy and stayed calm.
"I didn't know how it was going to be, but I felt good," he said. "It's easier to mentally focus if your body feels good."
His teammates felt good seeing him turn away 29 shots in overtime. They felt even better after Todd Marchant zipped up the left side and rifled a long shot past Chris Osgood 1:15 into the third overtime, giving the Ducks a 4-3 victory and sending the series to Anaheim on Tuesday even at 1-1.
This added to a string of overtime playoff epics between these teams. But in the past, Jean-Sebastien Giguere provided the acrobatics for the Ducks: He won four straight playoff overtime games against the Red Wings, including a 63-save gem in the opener of their 2003 first-round series.
Hiller's 59 saves Sunday were the most by a Ducks goalie since then and came in the Ducks' longest game since Petr Sykora scored 48 seconds into the fifth overtime of a second-round opener at Dallas on April 24, 2003.
Hiller was Giguerean. There's no better term.
"Fifty-nine saves. That's crazy. What a game by him," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "It's unbelievable. And that was a must-win."
The Ducks have never won a playoff series after losing the first two games. They made sure they wouldn't have to test their luck against Detroit by staying disciplined -- they took only three minor penalties -- riding another monster game from Ryan Getzlaf (one goal, two assists) and getting contributions from everyone.
That included Marchant, a speedster as a youth and now a tenacious defensive player. He took a pass from James Wisniewski and capitalized on the space created when Rob Niedermayer drove up the middle and drew the Detroit defense with him.
"Three overtimes, that's a lot of time. But guys stayed with it and we got great goaltending again," Marchant said. "Not many games get decided off my stick, that's for sure. It's a tremendous feeling but this was a team effort."
Wisniewski said the Red Wings erred by giving Marchant the shot from the outside.
