PREDS WIN FIRST SHOT AT CUP
Sissons trick knocks out Ducks in six
The crowd went wild in Nashville after Colton Sissons scored his first of three goals on the night, on the way to a 6-3 victory over Anaheim — wrapping up the NHL Western Conference final in Game 6. The underdog Preds entered the Stanley Cup playoffs as the lowest seed among the 16 survivors and had never even won a division crown in 19 seasons.
NASHVILLE— Colton Sissons scored his third goal with six minutes left, ensuring the Predators’ magical postseason will include the franchise’s first trip to the Stanley Cup final after eliminating the Anaheim Ducks with a 6-3 win in Game 6 on Monday night.
The Predators, who’ve never won even a division title in their 19-year history, came in with the fewest points of any team in these playoffs.
Now they’ve swept the West’s No. 1 seed in Chicago, downed St. Louis in six in the second round and beaten the Pacific Division champ in six games.
Peter Laviolette became the fourth coach to take three different teams to the Cup final, and the first since the playoffs were split into conference play in 1994.
“It feels so good,” Sissons said. “Listen to this crowd. Our fans are amazing, a great group of guys. We just believe in ourselves. That’s all it is.”
The Predators will play defending champion Pittsburgh or Ottawa for the Cup starting next Monday.
Anaheim lost in the conference final for the second time in three years.
Cam Fowler tied it up at 3-3 at 8:52 of the third as the Ducks tried to rally for the fifth time this season when trailing by multiple goals. But Sissons, who found the net on the third shot of the game, scored twice in a wild third period to give the Predators a 3-2 lead at the three-minute mark, then 4-3 three minutes later.
Austin Watson scored on Nashville’s first shot and added an emptynetter with 1:34 to go, as did Filip Forsberg. Pekka Rinne made 38 saves to improve to 12-4.
Ondrej Kase scored his second career goal — both in this series — giving Anaheim a chance to tie an NHL record with a fifth rally when trailing by multiple goals. Chris Wagner banked the puck off Rinne’s head for a goal at the five-minute point of the third to keep the Ducks close.
But this has been the best postseason ever for Rinne, a three-time Vezina Trophy finalist — a stretch ranking among the NHL’s best. And the six-foot-five Finn used his big body to turn away shot after shot even with the Ducks trying to crash the net every opportunity. He helped the Predators improve to 7-3 in onegoal games.
Music City buzzed all day leading up to the puck drop waiting for one of the biggest sports parties this town has ever seen.
Superstar Garth Brooks spoiled the usual mystery of who would sing the national anthem with Twitter hints hours before the game. Sure enough, his wife Trisha Yearwood handled the honours. Former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George waved the rally towel to crank up the fans. That didn’t include the throngs packing the plaza outside the arena’s front doors and the park across the street. The Ducks, who came in 2-1 when facing elimination this post-season, outshot Nashville 6-2 to start the game trying to force this series back to Anaheim.
But they had goalie Jonathan Bernier making his first career playoff start with John Gibson scratched with a lower-body injury. Gibson, who went out after the first period of Game 5, skated Monday morning only to be scratched with Jhonas Enroth dressed as Bernier’s backup.