Yet another frustrating end to a Ducks season with missed opportunities

May 22, 2017 11 PM PT

Reporting from Nashville —

This time was going to be different. After four straight seasons of backing down at the moment of truth, after building what they thought would be enough depth to get through a playoff grind, after bringing Randy Carlyle back to coach them because they believed his calm and resourcefulness would guide them past their mental and emotional postseason hurdles, the ending was the same for the Ducks.

Maybe even more painful than in previous seasons, because they clawed and scratched and were on the brink of forcing a seventh game in the Western Conference finals before they let their last chance slip away.

They got a few steps further than they did a year ago. But if losing to the Nashville Predators in a six-game conference finals one year after the Predators had booted them out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs meant the Ducks had accomplished something, that theory was contradicted by the tears welling in Ryan Kesler’s eyes and the vacant stares of Andrew Cogliano and Corey Perry after their efforts to mount yet another remarkable rally fell short in a 6-3 loss Monday.

“Personally, I don’t think the better team won tonight but it doesn’t really matter what I think,” said Kesler, who sat at his locker for long minutes with his head buried in a towel before he began to unlace his skates and unpeel the tape that held him and his equipment together. “They got the victory and they move on and we’re going home.”

The Predators are going to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in their history. The Ducks are going home with sharp regrets.

“There’s a lot of fight in this room and this one’s going to sting for a while,” Perry said. “You’ve got to give credit to them too. Their goalie played well. They’re a structured team and they don’t stray away from that and it works.”

The Ducks ran out of comebacks in part because they didn’t get championship-caliber goaltending from Jonathan Bernier, who was thrust into his first career playoff start after John Gibson told Carlyle following the morning skate that he couldn’t play. Gibson suffered a hamstring injury in Game 5 but had been skating, which gave Carlyle some optimism that Gibson would play Monday.

“So we went along with the premise that he was going to be able to play based upon how he felt [Sunday],” Carlyle said, “but then when he took to the ice today he basically indicated to us he was not available.”

Bernier had played a key role in the Ducks’ late-season surge when he stood in for an injured Gibson, but he gave up two goals on the first three shots he faced. Yet, the Ducks weren’t done. They erased two-goal deficits twice and were even at 3-3 and on the power play with a little more than eight minutes to play.

But then they squandered the power play — their fourth fruitless advantage — and were burned three seconds later when Colton Sissons — who couldn’t crack Nashville’s lineup as late as March — completed a hat trick when he converted a pass from Calle Jarnkrok at the 14-minute mark. The emotionally spent fans at Bridgestone Arena, who had been so loud and vibrant early in the game but had been silenced by the Ducks’ rally, erupted in cheers again.

“It definitely hurts worse when you play that good and you come back and you know this team has shown resiliency all year and to give up a goal like that, it … sucks,” Kesler said.

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Ducks forward Nicolas Kerdiles checks Predators defenseman Yannick Weber into the boards during the first period.