After two grueling rounds, two powerhouses are left standing in the west as the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks prepare to clash in the Western Conference Final after reaching the halfway mark of their championship dreams.
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Anaheim overcame the Winnipeg Jets and the Calgary Flames to advance while Chicago dropped the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild to punch their ticket into Round 3.
The winner of this series will meet whichever club survives the Eastern Conference Final between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.
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Before the lights come up at the Honda Center in Anaheim for Game 1 of this series at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, here's a preview and predictions for the best-of-seven series.
[Pacific Division 1] Anaheim Ducks vs. [Central Division 3] Chicago Blackhawks
Round 2 Reflection: After the Ducks dropped the Jets with a first-round sweep, Sports World News picked Anaheim to go over Calgary in six games in Round 2. Following the Blackhawks ousting the Predators in six contests, SWN went with Chicago over Minnesota in seven. The Ducks advanced in five games while the Blackhawks did so in four.
Season Series: The Blackhawks took two of three meetings from the Ducks, outscoring them 8-3 in those contests. Anaheim took the first meeting 1-0 while Chicago took the next two, each by a 4-1 final. The road team won each contest.
Cup Dreams: The Ducks are in the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2007, which was the last time they won it all. The Blackhawks, meanwhile, are in the conference finals for the fourth straight season and fifth time in the last seven years. Chicago is looking to get to the Stanley Cup for the third time since 2010 when it won the Cup. The Blackhawks were also crowned champions the last time they reached the Cup final in 2013.
Series Overview: Both of these clubs have been efficient this postseason, with the Ducks only needing nine games to get to this point and the Blackhawks using just 10.
Both teams boast star power and great scoring skill, starting with their captains. Ducks leader Ryan Getzlaf and Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews are great in all facets of the game.
Ducks forward Corey Perry leads the entire NHL with 15 points this postseason and is tied for second in the league with seven goals and eight assists while Getzlaf paces the NHL with 10 helpers.
Blackhawks winger Patrick Kane is tied with Perry with eight tallies and trails him by just two points with 13 after returning to the Blackhawks sooner than expected from a broken collarbone. Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith is tied with Perry with eight assists while Toews is knotted for third in the league with seven.
Perry and Getzlaf are a 1-2 punch for Anaheim and have combined for 27 points in nine games, which includes four markers on the man advantage. Getzlaf (51.4%) also excels in the face-off dot, as does new import Ryan Kesler (63.7%). Anaheim's 55.4% efficiency in the face-off circle is the best among remaining teams. Kesler has nine points off of four goals and five assists.
10 players on the Ducks have at least one goal while Matt Beleskey set a Ducks playoff record with tallies in five straight games in the second round and Jakub Silfverberg (3-8--11) and Patrick Maroon (4-3--7) have also been productive.
Toews and Kane offer a similar 1-2 punch for Chicago and Kane is riding a seven-game point streak into this series and had five goals in four games against Minnesota. Patrick Sharp (4-5--9) and Marian Hossa (1-7--8) have also come through this postseason while Antoine Vermette has won 64.4% of his draws. Brad Richards brings a wealth of playoff experience to the series.
Kane had four goals against the Ducks in three meetings this series while Sharp had four points. Anaheim only had three goals against Chicago this season and Perry was limited to just one assist and Getzlaf was held pointless.
On defense, Anaheim's top pairing of Francois Beauchemin (23:52) and Hampus Lindholm (21:30) have led the team in average ice time. Anaheim's defense has also gotten involved in the offense as the blue line has combined for 29 points heading into Round 3.
Lindholm (one goal, five assists) and Beauchemin (six helpers) each have six points this postseason. Sami Vatanen (2-5--7) leads all blue liners for the Ducks with seven points while Cam Fowler has a goal and five points.
Chicago's defense was already lacking depth when it lost Michal Rozsival in Game 4 against the Wild to a broken ankle, but its core four will look to shut Anaheim down. Duncan Keith averages a team-high 30:37 average time on ice and leads all Blackhawks defenseman with 10 points. Niklas Hjalmarsson (24:39), Johnny Oduya (24:29) and Brent Seabrook (24:02) have also logged heavy minutes.
In between the pipes, Anaheim turns to Frederik Andersen, who has risen to the occasion this postseason. Andersen is 8-1 in the playoffs with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. He dropped both games he played against the Blackhawks this season, yielding seven goals on 70 shots.
Chicago counters with 2013 Stanley Cup winner Corey Crawford in the crease and after losing the starting job and winning it back in Round 1 against Nashville, he turned things around against Minnesota, backstopping the Blackhawks to a sweep. Crawford is 6-5 this spring with a 2.60 GAA and a .916 save percentage. Crawford beat the Ducks twice this season, allowing just two goals on 46 shots in those meetings.
Behind the bench, Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau enters the third round of the postseason for the first time in his career, putting to bed any questions as to why his teams never go deep in the playoffs. Joel Quenneville has led the Blackhawks to the Western Conference Final for the fourth straight season and is in search of his third Cup with the team.
Special Teams: The Ducks boast the top power play in the postseason, converting at a 31% clip while the Blackhawks ranked fifth out of the 16 original playoff teams with a 20% conversion rate. On the penalty kill, Anaheim ranks fifth among the 16 playoff teams with an 87.1% clip while Chicago sits in 12th (72.7%).
Final Thoughts: This is going to be a heck of a series between two teams that are very deep and have several different contributors on the score sheet. Chicago got the upper-hand of Anaheim in the regular season, but the playoffs are a whole different animal. If Anaheim can get Crawford to falter like he did in Round 1 it would pay dividends while Chicago needs to test Andersen more than the Jets and Flames did. This series should be a lengthy one, but in the end the annual postseason experience the Blackhawks have will be the difference.
The Pick: Blackhawks in 6.
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