Ducks advance with sweep of Jets

Blues routWild to even series; Senators stay alive

The Anaheim Ducks wiped out the Winnipeg Jets in front of another raucous whiteout crowd.

Ryan Kesler scored twice in the third period and Anaheim beat Winnipeg 5- 2 on Wednesday night to sweep the Western Conference first- round series.

“Obviously it’s a building that I know, so it’s nice to come back here and be successful,” said Kesler, who played two seasons in Winnipeg for the Manitoba Moose in Vancouver’s farm system.

“Amazing, especially when they’re heckling at you and they’re booing you. Obviously, I wanted to silence this crowd tonight, and that’s what we did.”

Andrew Cogliano, Emerson Etem and Sam Vatanen — into an empty net — also scored, and Frederik Andersen made 25 saves. The Ducks are the first team to advance to the second round.

“I never thought it would be 4- 0 in my wildest dreams,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I thought it would be a six- or seven- game series.”

Anaheim will face Calgary or Vancouver in the second round. Calgary leads that series 3- 1.

“We didn’t come here to win one series,” Kesler said. “We came here for the whole thing.”

The Jets/ Atlanta Thrashers franchise remains without a playoff victory through 15 seasons of its existence. The only previous playoff appearance was in 1999 in Atlanta, a sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers.

Blues 6, Wild 1: Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice and St. Louis sent Minnesota goalie Devan Dubnyk to an early exit and thoroughly dominated the Wild to even their Western Conference series at 2- 2.

Kevin Shattenkirk had three assists and Jake Allen made 17 saves to help the Blues end a nine- game postseason road losing streak that lasted more than three years.

Patrik Berglund had a goal and an assist, and David Backes and Paul Stastny scored for the first time in the series. So did fourth- line right wing Ryan Reaves, whose one- timer from the point got past Dubnyk’s glove to give the Blues the early lead. By the middle of the first period, they were up 3- 0 after being shut out in Game 3.

Senators 1, Canadiens 0: Mike Hoffman scored midway through the third period, and Ottawa beat Montreal to avoid elimination. Craig Anderson made 28 saves to help the Senators’ cut Montreal’s lead to 3- 1 in the Eastern Conference first- round series.

Rangers 2, Penguins 1: Kevin Hayes scored at 3: 14 of overtime to give New York a victory over Pittsburgh for a 3- 1 lead in their series.

“It will be a memorable one, for sure,” Hayes said after his first playoff goal.

In overtime, Martin St. Louis started a goalmouth scramble when he threw the puck in front on a wraparound attempt. The puck pinballed to Carl Hagelin and went across the crease for Hayes to flip it past fallen goalie Marc- Andre Fleury.