Preds to play for Cup
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Different players just keep stepping up for the Nashville Predators, and now their magical postseason run has an even bigger destination: the franchise’s first trip to the Stanley Cup finals.
Colton Sissons scored his third goal with 6:00 left, and the Predators eliminated the Anaheim Ducks with a 6-3 win last night in Game 6 of 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.
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. 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 upperbody 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’ve swept the West’s No. 1 seed in Chicago, downed St. Louis in six in the second round and now the Pacific Division champs. Peter Laviolette is the fourth coach to take three different teams to the finals, and the first since the playoffs split into conference play in 1994.
Laviolette joked that probably means he’s been fired a lot.
“Our guys know the big picture,” Laviolette said of his Predators. “They understand what it is that we’re trying to do here. And when that time comes, we’ll be ready.”
The Predators will play either defending champion Pittsburgh or Ottawa for the Stanley Cup. Game 1 is Monday.
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 faceoff, 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 8:52 of the third 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 3-2 lead at 3:00 and then 4-3 three minutes later.