Ducks Advance To Western Semifinals By Sweeping Winnipeg Jets
WINNIPEG (CBSLA.com/AP) — Ryan Kesler scored twice in the third period and the Anaheim Ducks beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-2, on Thursday 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.
Bryan Little and Mark Stuart scored for Winnipeg.
Anaheim will face Calgary or Vancouver in the second round. Calgary leads that series 3-1.
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.
Amid more chants of "Katy Perry! Katy Perry!" from Jets fans, Ducks star Corey Perry had two more assists to reach six points in the series.
Winnipeg opened the scoring on Little's power-play 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, who 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.
MTS Centre was full of nervous energy and generally quiet for most of the third, until the TV timeout at the 10:24 mark. Three seconds later the place erupted when Stuart's point shot beat Andersen to cut it to 3-2.
Kesler made it 4-2 on a 2-on-1 rush with 4:49 left.
Winnipeg fans remained in the arena for some time, applauding their team's season, well after the final buzzer went off.
NOTES: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was in attendance, wearing a white Team Canada sweater. He tweeted: "Wow -- what an atmosphere. Happy to be part of the WPGWhiteOut tonight." ... Jets fans serenaded balding Anaheim captain Ryan Getzalf with chants of "Captain Rogaine! Captain Rogaine!"
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