Different players just keep stepping up for the Nashville Predators and now their magical post-season run has an even bigger destination — the franchise’s first trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
Colton Sissons on Monday scored his third goal with six minutes left as the Predators eliminated the Anaheim Ducks with a 6-3 win in Game 6 in the Western Conference Finals.
“In the back of your head, you’ve been thinking about the Finals and then when the buzzer goes off, it’s an amazing feeling,” Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne said.
Photo: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA Today
The Predators, who have never won even a division title in their 19-year history, came in with the fewest points of any team in the playoffs.
They lost their top center, Ryan Johansen, for the playoffs after Game 4 because of emergency surgery on his left thigh. Captain Mike Fisher has missed two games with an upper-body injury.
“We went through a tremendous amount of adversity the last 72 hours losing two key guys in our lineup,” Nashville defenseman P.K. Subban said. “I mean, I said it before earlier in the playoffs that this team’s got tremendous amount of composure. There is so much confidence in this dressing room what we can accomplish together if we play the right way.”
They have swept the West’s No. 1 seed in Chicago, downed St Louis in six in the second round and now the Pacific Division champions.
Peter Laviolette is the fourth coach to take three different teams to the Stanley Cup Final and the first since the playoffs split into conference play in 1994.
Laviolette joked that probably means he has been fired a lot.
“Our guys know the big picture,” Laviolette said. “They understand what it is that we’re trying to do here and when that time comes, we’ll be ready.”
The Predators are to play either defending champions the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Ottawa Senators for the Stanley Cup. Game 1 is on Monday next week.
Anaheim lost in the conference finals for the second time in three years.
“Our effort was there and we were a desperate hockey club right from the opening face-off, and we didn’t quit until they scored the second empty-net goal,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said.
Cam Fowler tied it 3-3 at 8 minutes, 52 seconds of the third period for Anaheim as the Ducks tried to rally for the fifth time this season when trailing by multiple goals, but Sissons, who scored on the third shot of the game, scored twice in a wild third period to give the Predators a 3-1 lead at 3:00 and then again 4-3.
“I don’t think I even dreamed of this moment, scoring a hat-trick in the Western Conference clinching game, but I can’t speak enough for just our whole group,” Sissons said. “We’ve been through some challenges together and we stuck together no matter what, just always believed and here we are.”
Austin Watson scored on Nashville’s first shot and had an empty-netter with 1:34 to go. Filip Forsberg also had an empty-net goal.
Rinne made 38 saves to improve to 12-4.
“This one is going to sting for a while,” Ducks forward Corey Perry said.
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