Ducks sweep Jets, become 1st to advance
Ryan Kesler scored twice in the third period and the Anaheim Ducks beat the host Winnipeg Jets 5- 2 on Wednesday night to sweep the Western Conference first- round series.
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. Anaheim faces Calgary or Vancouver in the second round. Calgary leads that series 3- 1.
Bryan Little and Mark Stuart scored for Winnipeg.
The Ducks’ Corey Perry had two more assists to reach six points in the series.
Winnipeg opened the scoring on Little’s powerplay goal with 3: 34 left in the first period. Anaheim tied it on Etem’s goal with 2: 08 left in the period.
After an ineffective Winnipeg power play in which it failed to get a shot on goal, the Ducks used more of their slick skill to take the lead. Hampus Lindholm’s drop pass to Perry got the puck in the hands of Anaheim’s best playmaker, and he beat the Jets’ Dustin Byfuglien and fed Cogliano for the go- ahead goal at 12: 55 of the second.
For the first time all series, the Jets didn’t take a lead into the second intermission. It didn’t matter, as they couldn’t get into any third- period rhythm and gave up a goal to Kesler at the 6: 41 mark to fall behind 3- 1.