\u201cIt\u2019s hard to see when you\u2019re on the ice like that,\u201d said Carlsson, the Ducks\u2019 blossoming star center. \u201cProbably see it all on my phone soon. I can hear it but you\u2019re so focused. It\u2019s hard to take it all in at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Troy Terry could see what it all meant to a jubilant crowd. The first playoff series victory for the Ducks since what felt like a lifetime ago. A completely turned over roster ago, for sure. Nine years that would include a properly done rebuild where their fan base put up with a lot of losing, a true NHL-worst bottoming out 2022-23 season thrown in.<\/p>\n
Terry went through it all as the longest-serving Ducks player, having joined Anaheim in the spring of 2018 after ending his college career and watching the Ducks\u2019 last era of playoff contention end with a four-game drubbing by the San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fan base,\u201d Terry said, collecting his thoughts. \u201cIt\u2019s been hard on me, too. It\u2019s been a long time. We\u2019ve had fans that have been super loyal, have always shown up for us and they deserve this. A lot of us live in the Newport area. All of a sudden, you\u2019re seeing cars with Ducks flags on them everywhere and you just really start to see what this means to Orange County and it\u2019s been a long time.<\/p>\n
The Ducks may still be seen as an upstart in these playoffs, but there was no question who was the better team. Edmonton had the pedigree. It had nine series wins over the last four postseasons and trips to the last two Stanley Cup finals. It had the best player in the world in Connor McDavid and maybe a top-five player in Leon Draisaitl, McDavid\u2019s fellow Hart Trophy-winning running mate. What it didn\u2019t have was ideal health to combat a younger, faster Anaheim squad that basically played only two bad periods out of 18.<\/p>\n
The last time the Ducks shook hands as the victor was in 2017, when they were the veteran club on its final serious Cup run. That Anaheim team outlasted a young McDavid and Draisaitl, who got Edmonton back in the playoffs after a 10-year absence. A Ducks\u2019 perfectly played Game 7, in which they shut down those twin ascending superstars, lifted Anaheim to the Western Conference final.<\/p>\n
Much has changed since. There isn\u2019t one player left from that Anaheim team. Only Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse join McDavid and Draisaitl as remnants from that series. But one parallel can be drawn. The Ducks, as this year\u2019s fresh-faced playoff entrant, put the defensive clamps on the Oilers\u2019 two-headed monster just as a prior era did. This time was about applying an impeccable finish to a team worn down by a lot of hockey over the last three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure it was our best game,\u201d said Ducks coach Joel Quenneville, who now has a career record of 20-6 in Game 6s. \u201cIt could have been our best game of the year. A lot of things went well tonight. We didn\u2019t have to play catch up. We had a good start. We might not have scored right away, but I still thought we had good pace. We had good possession. And we did a lot of the things technically in the game that kept us having the puck a little longer than we had in most of the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur power play again scored a very timely goal for us. I think our special teams were special in this series and that made a big impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Ducks got everything they wanted after letting themselves down in Game 5 with a terrible opening 10 minutes. Ryan Poehling\u2019s fourth goal of these playoffs gave the Ducks their first 1-0 lead of the series. Chris Kreider was put back on the top line with Carlsson and Terry, and celebrated his 35th birthday by finishing a terrific rush with his younger mates. Cutter Gauthier answered a Connor Murphy goal with a score for Anaheim\u2019s eighth power-play goal of the series.<\/p>\n
With a 3-1 lead, the Ducks turned the tables from Game 5. And that\u2019s where they put into practice the lessons learned the hard way all season. They were so used to trailing in games and making comebacks \u2014 particularly after the Olympic break \u2014 that they didn\u2019t fare well holding early leads in the rare times they got them.<\/p>\n
But they got a huge momentum swing when Terry scored with 47 seconds left in the second period, not long after Zach Hyman\u2019s goal that would have brought Edmonton within one was correctly waved off as Hyman put a rebound in with a distinct kicking motion. The Oilers had precious little to build off. Anaheim never visited the penalty box. And goalie Lukas Dostal gave the Ducks his best game with a 25-save effort that included some timely stops.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s disappointing for us,\u201d Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of credit to the Ducks team. I thought they played really well. They\u2019ve got a really exciting future ahead of them, just with the players that they have. I think the coaching staff did a great job getting it all together for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson LaCombe\u2019s star turn was arguably the biggest difference. The 25-year-old was the best player through the six games. LaCombe added an assist Thursday and was a plus-3, running his point total to lead all defensemen in the playoffs while having a plus-6 rating at even strength. McDavid was weakened by an ankle injury suffered in Game 2, but LaCombe led a defensive effort that limited him to two points in 5-on-5 play.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/USATSI_28850670-scaled-e1777627658817.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n The Ducks put the defensive clamps on Connor McDavid throughout the series. (Kirby Lee \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
In the end, the Ducks had more contributors across the lineup. Kreider broke out with a three-point night after fellow veterans Alex Killorn and Mikael Granlund produced in earlier wins. Jacob Trouba and John Carlson shared in the heavy lifting on the back end with LaCombe. The unsung fourth line of Jeffrey Viel, Tim Washe and Ian Moore consistently gave Anaheim quality minutes. Mason McTavish hasn\u2019t played a ton, but his impact grew as the series went on.<\/p>\n
Not only have these Ducks been entertaining, but they showed a fan base that there is some mettle to go with their run-and-gun mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge win,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cI\u2019m happy for the players. I\u2019m happy for our fans. And now we\u2019ve got a taste of playoff hockey. And I think we can feel at this moment that it\u2019s so much fun playing games that have the meaning and the building being as loud and excited as it is. And then it seems to grow from this level on.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we get to experience another round. I think this is healthy for us. And we got a young group that\u2019s still \u2014 you don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to play, but you\u2019re certainly excited what the upside is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where this playoff road takes the Ducks is to be traveled still. But the bright future that\u2019s been long predicted for them is now here. And a recharged \u201cOrange Country\u201d \u2014 the marketing slogan they adopted before last season \u2014 is fervently behind them.<\/p>\n
\u201cLoud,\u201d said Kreider, who knows atmosphere after playoff runs with the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. \u201cSuper invested. Yeah, it was a blast. You can feel the energy in the building. It\u2019s just a ton of fun to play in front of our home crowds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terry went seven seasons without a playoff game. He\u2019ll now get at least four more. Maybe many more if the Ducks continue to build momentum as they await either Vegas or Utah. But to seal the deal against the once-favored Oilers was \u201can awesome feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the fans that stuck with them through lean times. For himself and the faith he kept. For his teammates that are enjoying a wild ride together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was our first taste of it, and we knew that this series was there for us if we played the right way,\u201d Terry said. \u201cI just thought through the whole thing \u2013 obviously they made a push in Game 5 \u2013 but I\u2019m just proud of the guys. A lot of inexperienced guys, myself included. I thought we played maturely, played hard, and the fans here brought it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m happy for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANAHEIM, Calif. \u2014 Leo Carlsson couldn\u2019t quite appreciate the enormity of it all once he slid the puck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,824,165,164],"class_list":["post-294852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}