All season, the Ducks wore T-shirts imprinted with the slogan "Unfinished Business," the motto they adopted after their first-round, Game 7 loss to the Detroit Red Wings last spring.
They can now wash those shirts and wear them again for another season.
It turns out the Ducks weren't the only team motivated by the thought of wasted opportunities. The Kings also felt they had some unfinished business after they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference finals last season, only they took care of it on Friday, roaring to a five-goal lead before defeating the Ducks, 6-2, at the Honda Center to win the teams' second-round playoff series and earn a return trip to the West finals.
They will face the Blackhawks again, starting Sunday afternoon in Chicago. The Kings were battered and bruised when they fell to the eventual Stanley Cup champions last season and they're missing defensemen Willie Mitchell and Robyn Regehr now, but their competitiveness and resilience — and the Game 7 magic of Justin Williams — were key factors in carrying them to their third consecutive West finals.
In a salary-cap era, which works against sustaining excellence, making it this far again is a significant achievement.
"It's one of those things that's a steppingstone from inside this room," Kings captain Dustin Brown said.
"Getting back there is one thing. There are some things that we didn't do last year that we want to do this year. Obviously, the team that we're going up against got the job done last year so we've got to reload now."
They won't have much time, but they've made an art out of adjusting on the fly and erasing disadvantages. They've lost three straight games in each playoff round, falling in their first three against San Jose and then Games 3, 4 and 5 in this series. And they faced a Game 7 on the road in each series, too.
But every time they fall they seem to get up with new strength that propels them to the next level.
"The hardest part is just getting into the playoffs every year. It's a grind. And we earned the right to be here," said Williams, who recorded a goal and an assist to pad his totals to six goals and 12 points in six career Game 7s, all victories for his team.
"We beat two extremely tough teams in the Pacific Division, which is a real tough division. We're proud of where we are, but we're halfway."
The Kings turned this first-ever playoff series against their closest geographical rival into a showcase of their strengths, while exposing the Ducks' tactical and emotional weaknesses.
"It wasn't any one guy tonight," Brown said. "I thought all four lines contributed in positive ways, and when we got a lead, I thought we did a pretty good job of keeping our foot on the gas pedal."
It was a shame the wonderful career of Ducks right wing Teemu Selanne ended with a poor team effort in a game that was essentially over after the Kings' three-goal blitz in the first period. He deserved to retire on a higher note. But the Ducks, who had two chances to live up to their No. 1 seeding after taking a 3-2 series lead Monday, were incapable of sending him off in the style he deserved.
"These are the moments that you feel quite empty and you're trying to find reasons, and you go through the first period and what happened," said Ducks center Saku Koivu, who is contemplating his own retirement and will decide this summer.
"The way we played in the first six games we were confident that we could do it, but they were a lot better tonight. There are no ifs. They just outplayed us tonight and it's a tough way to go home."
While the Ducks try to figure out what went wrong, the Kings will go to Chicago for a Sunday afternoon opener, secure in the knowledge they can play their best when the circumstances seem the worst.
"It's in this room. We don't look outside too much. We believe in this room and that's the most important thing," Kopitar said.
"We trust in each other, and when you throw a little desperation and urgency on top of it, we're playing pretty good hockey."
Good enough not to need a T-shirt to remind them of their goal.
helene.elliott@latimes.com
Twitter: @helenenothelen
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