May 27, 2006 — The Edmonton Oilers are Western Conference Champions.
The team’s run in 2006 was certainly a different ride than the other six trips to the Stanley Cup Final that the Oilers had made during the 80s. They snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed in the Western Conference and proceeded to pull off back-to-back-to-back upsets to win the franchise’s seventh Clarence S. Campbell Bowl.
The biggest shocker came in the first round of the playoffs when the Oilers took down the Detroit Red Wings, the team who had won the Presidents’ Trophy with a 58-16-8 record and finished 29 points ahead of them in the standings. After that, they dropped the first two games of their second-round series with the San Jose Sharks, the hottest team in hockey after trading for Joe Thornton, but the Oilers battled back with four consecutive wins to take the series in six.
Finally, the Oilers lined up against the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the Western Conference Final. The Ducks had made a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final a few years earlier but came back with a much stronger team that was led by Norris Trophy winner Scott Niedermayer and a rejuvenated Teemu Selanne.
The Oilers went into Anaheim and took the first two games of the series with matching 3-1 wins and then came home and put themselves up 3-0 in the series with a 5-4 win. The Ducks avoided being swept with a 6-3 win, and then the Oilers finished the job back in Anaheim in Game 5.
Ducks defenceman Francois Beauchemin opened the scoring in the first period and Ethan Moreau and Raffi Torres scored goals in the second frame to put the Oilers on top. Those goals were all they needed as Dwayne Roloson slammed the door in the third, stopping 32 of 33 shots in the game all told.
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