Resurgent Ducks giving fans reason to believe after knocking off Oilers

The scene from inside the Honda Center on Thursday said it all.There was the fist pump from goaltender Lukas Dostal.

The sea of orange-clad fans, scattered across the seats, descending into a frenzy as the horn sounded and Game 6 — a 5-2 win to secure a first-round series win — ended.The dozen-plus Ducks flipping over the boards and gliding across the ice, starting a celebration absent from the franchise for nearly a decade.“Unreal,” Dostal, who backstopped all four wins over the Oilers, told reporters from his locker room stall postgame, and that really was a fitting word to describe the statement they’d just made.

Edmonton had advanced to the past two Stanley Cup Finals.The Oilers possess one of the game’s most dynamic players in Connor McDavid.

But they ran into the buzz saw of the Western Conference, the Ducks suddenly relevant again well ahead of schedule.The last time Anaheim won a playoff series, Ryan Getzlaf was captain and topped 70 points for the final time in his career — back in the 2017 tournament, near the end of a stretch that included nine postseason berths in 12 years and one Stanley Cup.So much has changed since then.

A rebuild sucked the life out of Anaheim for so long.In many ways, a season like this would’ve certainly seemed unreal back in July.

But behind a blend of veterans and youth on the roster, and with a controversial head coach behind the bench, the Ducks will start their series against the Golden Knights — whom they defeated in all three regular-season matchups — next week as one of eight teams left standing.They sit 12 wins from the second Stanley Cup in franchise history.“We’ve got a taste of playoff hockey,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters after securing a spot in the conference semifinals, according to NHL.com.

“Now, we get to experience another round, and I think this is healthy for us.… You don’t know how they’re going to play, but you’re certainly excited about what the upsid...