|
 Kesler showed he's a difference maker Wednesday night, scoring a
pair of goals to propel the Ducks to a 5-2 victory over the Winnipeg
Jets and a sweep of their best-of-seven opening-round playoff
series.
The Ducks are the first team to advance to the second round of the
playoffs, dispatching of the Jets before a sold-out, towel-waving
crowd of 15,016 at MTS Centre, the vast majority wearing white.
They now await the winner of the series between the Calgary Flames
and Vancouver Canucks. The Flames lead that best-of-seven series
3-1.
Kesler had three goals in the final two games of the series,
including a pair in Game 4 that gave the Ducks third-period leads of
3-1 and 4-2. Two nights earlier, his third-period goal tied the
contest late, and Anaheim escaped with a 5-4 overtime win on Rickard
Rakell's tip-in.
His experience and moxy during crunch time were exactly why Ducks
general manager Bob Murray made the deal last June with Vancouver,
sending center Nick Bonino and blueliner Luca Sbisa to Vancouver
along with draft picks.
Anaheim captain Ryan Getzlaf said the Ducks knew Kesler would be a
major contributor, particularly in the post-season pressure cooker.
"When he came in, it was a pretty big message to the group that we
were going to try and do something this year," said Getzlaf.
"Kes showed up in the playoffs just as we expected him to. He was
great."
Kesler, 30, made it to the Stanley Cup final in 2011 with Vancouver,
eventually losing in seven games to the Boston Bruins.
"You can relish it tonight, Kesler said. "It's one series. We didn't
come here to win one series. We came here for the whole thing. It's
one step. We got another step and we got three more to go. So, we've
got to focus on Step 2 now.
"(Ducks goalie Frederik Andersen's) playing well, our D is playing
well and (it's) not just the top line scoring. We got a bunch of
different lines scoring for us. Obviously it's different from series
to series and there's going to be different heroes every night.
Right now it's fun hockey to play."
Kesler scored at 6:41 of the third period to hand the Ducks at
two-goal cushion when he tapped in a rebound after Winnipeg goalie
Ondrej Pavelec made back-to-back saves on defenseman Simon Despres
and left winger Tomas Fleischmann.
Jets blueliner Mark Stuart let a bullet go from the point that beat
Andersen at 10:27 of the final period to make it 3-2, but Kesler
struck again, taking a pass from right winger Jakob Silfverberg on a
two-on-one rush before ripping a shot past Pavelec.
Ducks defenseman Sami Vatanen closed out the victory with an
empty-net goal with just 27 seconds left in the final period.
Left wingers Emerson Etem and Andrew Cogliano also scored for the
Ducks, while right winger Corey Perry chipped in a pair of assists
to lead all skaters with seven points in the series.
Center Bryan Little fired the other goal for the Jets.
Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said the series was a whole lot closer
than the sweep would suggest.
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"Coaches look and they're going, 'who don't you want to play?' You
never want to admit it. Winnipeg was the one team that was coming in
had the hardest schedule coming down the stretch, and they kept
beating all of these good teams," he said. "You knew it was going to
be a real battle, I never expected it to be 4-0 quite frankly in my
wildest dreams. I thought it was minimum a six or seven game playoff
series."
The clubs were tied 1-1 after the first period and the Ducks held a
2-1 lead after the second, marking the first time in the series the
Jets trailed heading into the final 20 minutes of regulation time.
Andersen made 25 saves while Pavelec stopped 30 shots.
"It's a disappointing loss, disappointing that we lost the series
4-0," said Pavelec. "There's not much to say. I think we played some
really good games and 4-0 seems a little bad. We deserve some
credit, too, I mean we played against a really good team. That's a
team that can win the cup."
Jets right winger Blake Wheeler agreed.
"There wasn't a whole lot out there for either side, there really
wasn't. There wasn't a whole lot of offensive zone time, there
wasn't a whole lot of cycling. It just seemed like when they got
their looks, they made them count," Wheeler said. "There's something
to be said for that, to capitalize on your opportunities, the
comebacks that they made, that's how you win. That's how you get on
a roll and they're a team playing with a lot of confidence right
now."
NOTES: Ducks C Tomas Fleischmann played his second straight game,
with Ducks RW Chris Wagner (upper body) and C Nate Thompson (upper
body) still on the mend. ... Jets coach Paul Maurice made one lineup
change, inserting D Ben Chiarot for D Adam Pardy. ... Anaheim's 3-0
series lead was historic, according to the statistics gurus from
Elias Sports Bureau. The Ducks are the first team in NHL history to
win three in a row when trailing each game at the start of the third
period. ... Winnipeg D Dustin Byfuglien did not face supplemental
discipline by the NHL for hitting RW Corey Perry after the Ducks
star scored in Game 3. ... Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper, a
huge hockey fan, was in the building Wednesday. ... Anaheim C
Rickard Rakell, just two weeks shy of his 22nd birthday, became the
youngest player in franchise history to score an overtime goal in
the playoffs, clinching Anaheim's victory Monday night.
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