Nashville push aside Ducks, 6-3, to reach Stanley Cup Final Rinne holds off Ducks with 38 saves

For the first time in franchise history, the Nashville Predators are heading to the Stanley Cup Final after a 6-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

It wasn’t an easy win as the Ducks tied the game 3-3 near the midway point of the third period.

But the Preds responded with three goals and now get ready to face the winner of the Ottawa-Pittsburgh series in the Eastern Conference.

Colton Sissons led the offense for Nashville with a hat trick.

“It feels good man, I’m not going to lie,” Sissons said. “Obviously I don’t think I could have dreamt of this moment, scoring a hat trick in a Western Conference clinching game. But I can’t speak enough of our whole group. We’ve been through some challenges together, and we stuck together no matter what. We believed, and here we are.”

Cam Fowler, Ondrej Kase  and Chris Wagner scored for the Ducks.

“This is the worst feeling in hockey. We worked so hard all year and in the game, and it is incredibly frustrating,” the Ducks’ Ryan Getzlaf said after the series-ending loss.

Filip Forsberg  scored an empty-netter to give Nashville a 5-3 lead and then Austin Watson added a second empty net goal to seal the trip to the Stanley Cup Final for the Predators.

Watson had two goals on the night.

“Well we’re happy right now, it’s awesome,” Predators defenseman Roman Josi said. “Proud of this team. We worked hard all year. We worked hard for this, and now we’ve got a chance to play for the Stanley Cup. I couldn’t be happier right now.”

Pekka Rinne made 38 saves to get the win.

[WATCH: All Predators vs. Ducks highlights | Complete Nashville vs. Anaheim series coverage]

Jonathan Bernier got the start for the Ducks in place of the injured John Gibson; he took the loss on 12 saves.

“I look at the game and I look at our body of work and how we played, I don’t think I’d complain about our effort,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said. “Yeah, we could make some definite improvements in our execution, but our effort was there and we were a desperate hockey club right from the opening faceoff and we didn’t quit until they scored the second empty-net goal.”