for a 3–2 victory, moving onto the Stanley Cup Finals for the fourth time in franchise history, and avoiding the same fates as St. Louis, Colorado, and Vancouver. Western Conference Final (6) Minnesota Wild vs. (7) Mighty Ducks of Anaheim This was the first playoff meeting between these two teams. This was the first Western Conference Final since 1994 to not feature either the Detroit Red Wings or Colorado Avalanche. This was the first Conference Finals appearance for both teams; the Mighty Ducks made the Conference Finals in their tenth season, while the Wild did so in their third season; the teams entered the NHL in 1993 and 2000, respectively. Anaheim won this year's four-game regular season series earning five of eight points. Anaheim earned their second four-game sweep this playoffs season. Anaheim also only allowed one goal in the four games they played against Minnesota setting an NHL record for the fewest goals allowed by one team in a playoff series. In game one, Petr Sykora scored the only goal of the game in the second overtime period. Jean-Sebastien Giguere stopped all 39 shots he faced. Kurt Sauer and Rob Niedermayer both scored short-handed goals in game two as the Mighty Ducks shut out the Wild again, this time 2–0. Paul Kariya scored twice in game three, and J.S. Giguere shut out the Wild for the third time this series, stopping 35 shots, bringing his total consecutive shutout time to 213 minutes and 17 seconds. Determined to score, Minnesota got on the board for the first time since game seven of the Conference Semifinals when Andrew Brunette scored on a power-play. However, Anaheim followed up by scoring two power-play goals themselves, both by Adam Oates. The score remained 2–1 as the Mighty Ducks moved onto the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in their history. Stanley Cup Finals This was the first playoff series between these two teams. New Jersey made their fourth appearance in the Finals, they last made the Finals in , where they lost to the Colorado Avalanche in seven games. Anaheim made their first Finals appearance in their tenth season since entering the league in 1993–94. New Jersey won both games during this year's two-game regular season series. This was only the third time in NHL history and the first time since that the home team won all the games in the Stanley Cup