Ducks finally clear hurdle

Anaheim advances to conference finals after a Game 7 win.

ANAHEIM, CALIF. — The Anaheim Ducks finally cleared a major psychological hurdle with their gritty Game 7 victory over Edmonton on Wednesday night. After four consecutive years of failure in winner-take-all showdowns, they stood up to an upstart opponent and finished a series strong.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a relief, but the fact we don’t have to talk about it anymore, that’s a good thing,” captain Ryan Getzlaf said.

Getzlaf also said this particular party is already over.

Anaheim has to prepare to face another daunting obstacle from its playoff past: a 6-foot-5 Finnish goalie with a knack for stopping the Ducks in their playoff tracks.

Nashville’s Pekka Rinne ran Anaheim out of the first round last season for the second time in his career, and he returns with the surging Predators for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals tonight.

The Ducks have been the hapless foils for some of the best moments in Nashville franchise history — and for Rinne, who always seems to find his inimitable top form against Anaheim.

Rinne and the Predators ousted the Ducks in six games in 2011 for their first playoff series victory. Five years later, Nashville won the first two games of the clubs’ first-round series at Honda Center before winning the final two, including a nail-biting 2-1 victory in a Game 7 dominated by Rinne.

“They’re a great team, and they’ve done a really good job in the playoffs this season and against us in the past,” said Anaheim forward Andrew Cogliano, who scored the tying goal in Game 7. “It’s going to be another big challenge.”

Both of the West finalists are perhaps overdue to be rewarded for years of patient progress with a Stanley Cup Final trip. Anaheim hasn’t made the final round in a decade despite icing one of the NHL’s most consistently strong teams, while the Predators are in their first conference finals in the club’s 10th trip to the postseason since 2004.

Nobody gets anything in the Stanley Cup playoffs without a grind, and these two teams are on it. They’ve combined for the best two records this postseason, losing only five combined games.

Capitals: Russian hockey officials announced Thursday that Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin played through injury before Washington was eliminated from the NHL playoffs in the second round by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Ovechkin finished the playoffs dealing with a lower-body injury that required pain-numbing injections, the Russian Hockey Federation said in noting Ovechkin would not be able to play for Russia at the world championships in Europe because of it.

The Pens ousted the Caps 2-0 in Game 7 on Wednesday.