ANAHEIM -- The Ducks didn't exactly solve their problems Friday night. They just sort of bulled past them.
Despite continuing to take penalties in bulk -- some of them truly ill-advised -- the Ducks rode the wave of emotion built on desperation to beat Dallas 5-2, keeping their reign as Stanley Cup champions alive for at least another 48 hours.
"Desperation is probably the descriptive word," said Ducks coach Randy Carlyle, explaining how the Ducks managed to play such an up-tempo game -- good for a combined 73 shots, 42 by Dallas -- in a rare case of back-to-back scheduling in the postseason.
It was a lot of fun to watch -- "I thought it was a pretty entertaining game ... We probably owed one to our fans," said goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere -- but less fun to coach.
"It probably wasn't one ... you'd bring to a coaches' seminar and say that's the way you'd want to play," said Carlyle, "but we're not going to critique a win."
Said Teemu Selanne, who scored one goal and seemed on the verge of a half-dozen others, "Obviously, the situation for both teams was not perfect. ... There's not much time to rest and regroup, but the playoffs, the intensity, you just have to fight through."
For those looking for signs this was a turning point, rather than a case of delaying the inevitable, signs were mixed.
On the cause-for-hope sign of the Anaheim ledger:
-- Corey Perry had a goal and an assist, playing in just his second game since suffering a lacerated tendon in his right quad that forced him to miss the last 12 games of the regular season, as well as the first three of the playoffs.
"(Thursday) night, I thought he was a little apprehensive and it didn't look like he had a lot of power early in the game, but I thought as the game got going he had a couple of shifts where he controlled the puck down low," said coach Randy Carlyle, "and did a lot of things with the puck. That's the kind of game you have to expect from Corey Perry. And then tonight was a goal scorer's goal. He shot the puck, and found a way to get us on the board early."
-- The Ducks finally won the special teams battle, scoring two power play goals in three chances -- including a particularly dazzling effort leading to a Ryan Getzlaf goal in the second period -- while giving up nothing in seven short-handed situations.
"They clicked tonight," Getzlaf said of the special-teams play. "That's one game, but that's what we need down the stretch. ... That's pretty much what the playoffs have been so far, so we've got to be ready."
-- On a clearly related note, they also had the edge in the goaltending battle. Jean-Sebastien Giguere was somewhere between strong and spectacular, giving Anaheim a clear advantage in net on a night when Dallas' Marty Turco let in one very soft goal (the first one, a five-hole shot by Perry) and generally looked like the postseason mortal he's been for most of his career, rather than the standout he'd been earlier in the series. "Outstanding," said Getzlaf. "He made those big saves and that makes all the difference in the world."
Agreed Selanne, "That's what this team needs. When he plays like that, we know we have a good chance to win."
On the other end, there are those penalties: Eleven of them, this time, leading to seven Dallas power plays. The Ducks got away with it Friday, but this is not a formula for long-term success.
"We just keep telling ourselves to play smart, disciplined hockey" sighed Selanne, "and then it's like a shorthand practice, a penalty-killing practice."
Dallas had three power plays in just the first period.
"We could have easily taken ourselves right out of the hockey game," said Carlyle, "without the effort of our penalty killers and goaltending. Hopefully those are things we can learn from, but it seems to be a long, hard lesson for our group."
There's also the fact that Selanne, who had a goal and generally was outstanding, probably could and should have had more, given all his chances. No one was more aware of that than the Finnish Flash.
"I have never missed so many opportunities in my life, not even when I played Pee Wee," said Selanne, who had a game-high eight shots. "It's really frustrating. ... I have to do better. I have to do better. I can't keep missing those chances. Even the previous game in Dallas, I could have had three goals. But hopefully, they come."
If they do, that would turn a question mark into a positive.
More to the point, it would greatly enhance the Ducks' chances of survival. A win Friday certainly increased those chances, and shift the pressure at least a little; Dallas figures to be desperate to win Sunday to avoid a Game 7 back in Anaheim on Tuesday.
Not that anyone on either side would ever admit to thinking that far ahead.

A quick summation of Friday's game:
First period
In a word, wild.
As has been their M.O. in this series, the Ducks start heading to the penalty box early -- Ryan Carter draws the first penalty just 2:57 in -- and often, but a wide-open (29 shots, 15 for Dallas) and rather testy (12 penalties, for 40 minutes) period ends tied at 1.
After the Ducks storm the net in the opening 90 seconds, the action evens out a bit until Corey Perry gives Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 8:25 on a breakaway after leaving (where else?) the penalty box -- a really, really soft goal for Marty Turco. But Dallas draws even with 1:33 left on a goal by Mattias Norstrom, who scores about as frequently as Halley's Comet visits. No, really. This was Norstrom's 43rd career playoff game, and his first postseason goal.
Second period
Chris Pronger takes an incredibly dumb penalty for roughing Jere Lehtinen just 2:04 in -- the whistle had blown, Lehtinen was standing in front of Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Pronger bowled him over. The Ducks kill the penalty, but it shifts momentum for a while. At the midpoint of the period, the Stars have an 11-3 advantage in shots.
But that's when Anaheim gets its first power play on an interference penalty by Mark Fistric. The Ducks keep the puck in the Dallas zone for the entire advantage, 80 seconds, , before Ryan Getzlaf sets up to the left of the net, waits, waits -- and beats Turco to the long side for a 2-1 lead at 11:03. That's the lead at intermission in a surprisingly wide-open game; the 56 shots through two periods (31-25 for Dallas) exceed the shot total for each of the previous three games.
Third period
The Ducks earn a two-man advantage in the first minute of the period, and need just 20 seconds to take advantage, as Teemu Selanne bangs home a rebound of a Chris Pronger shot at 48 seconds. Dallas cuts the lead to 3-2 at 4:41, however, as Mike Ribeiro -- who had failed to control the puck on an open-net opportunity back in the first period, just 12 seconds before Perry gave the Ducks their 1-0 lead -- is left with too much space and time to work from the left side of the net.
But the Ducks regain the two-goal lead at 12:05 on a goal by Sean O'Donnell, and when Todd Marchant adds an empty-netter with 1:24 left, both teams are free to figure out their itineraries for the trip back to Dallas for Game 6 on Sunday.
The final shot total is 42-31 in favor of Dallas. Shots aren't always an indication of the nature of a game, but in this case, the numbes perfectly reflect the wild, end-to-end nature of the game.