The thrill of the kill

Humiliation came first and desperation soon followed. A wounded, undermanned Ducks team needed something positive and fast.

Try redemption.

Missing a suspended Chris Pronger for Game 4 of the Western Conference finals and an injured Chris Kunitz for the rest of the playoffs, the Ducks dug deep and squared the series at two games apiece with a gritty 5-3 win Thursday over the Detroit Red Wings at the Honda Center.

Instead of facing elimination in Game 5 on Sunday, the Ducks now head back to Detroit on even terms, with the two teams now down to which one can win two of the next three.

“It’s a huge game for us,” Ducks forward Corey Perry said. “It’s hard to win in that building. The atmosphere’s pretty hectic in there. We’ve just got to battle.”

Ryan Getzlaf broke a 3-3 tie on a reawakened power play in the third period and Rob Niedermayer finished the win off with an empty-net goal. Jean-Sebastien Giguere came up big during two five-on-three disadvantages as he survived a 39-shot onslaught by the Red Wings.

The wreckage of a 5-0 loss in Game 3 is officially behind them.

“Obviously we showed that we were ready,” Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle said. “It was not a question of anything other than the fact that we were a very determined group from the beginning. And that’s the way every game has to be played.”

Even with an overflow crowd of 17,375 behind them, the Ducks were facing a tall task without arguably their best player in this postseason. Pronger was suspended on Wednesday after hitting Red Wings forward Tomas Holmstrom against the glass midway through Game 3.

It was the lowlight of a miserable 48-hour stretch that the Ducks had to somehow get past.

“We worked so hard at getting that win in Detroit and then you come here and for some reason that nobody knows, you come out flat with no energy in front of our fans,” Giguere said. “It was all just disappointing, but I don’t think we were down.

“We were just disappointed in ourselves and we knew we could come back and do well.”

Instead of wallowing without their missing pieces in Pronger and Kunitz, the Ducks used their absences as a rallying point.

Perry jumped on a turnover by Detroit’s Todd Bertuzzi and beat goalie Dominik Hasek with a slap shot 97 seconds into the game. Ric Jackman, inserted into the lineup with Pronger out, scored in his first playoff game after Dan Cleary tied it for the Red Wings.

Teemu Selanne then broke a four-game goal drought at 18:31 of the first period to give the Ducks a 3-1 lead on only eight shots.

“Obviously as a goal scorer, it’s really tough sometimes when you can’t score,” said Selanne, who also had two assists. “But, you know, it’s nothing that I haven’t faced before. You just have to work hard and believe those goals are coming.”

Jackman’s power-play goal broke the team’s 0-for-33 drought that stretched over six games. It was the first time Hasek had given up three first-period goals in eight years.

“To get up 3-1 coming in after the first, it was a huge confidence boost for us,” Perry said. “Knowing we could get on Hasek and get some pucks behind him, it was huge for us to get that lead.”

All of it was needed because the Ducks felt Pronger’s absence as the game wore on.

The Red Wings continued to hurt Anaheim on the power play as they took full of advantage of the hole in the Ducks’ penalty kill. Bertuzzi scored while camped outside the crease and Cleary banged in his second of the night to erase the deficit.

It appeared that Ducks were about to hurt themselves again when Rob Niedermayer took a cross-checking penalty on the opening faceoff of the third with Perry already in the box. But they managed to escape harm as they limited Detroit to one shot.

“That was a dumb penalty by me,” Niedermayer said. “It was a long two minutes in the box. Jiggy was fantastic. It was big kill for us.”

Now the Ducks are alive and well with Pronger back in the fold.

“I don’t know if we got him off the hook,” Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer said. “That’s what playoffs are all about. You’ve got opportunities like this when you’re down and out and you’ve just got to fight back.

“That’s what we had an opportunity to do tonight and we did it. But now we’re even. That’s all.”

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eric.stephens@latimes.com