ANAHEIM, Calif. _ Nothing will fully erase the empty feeling the Anaheim Ducks were left with following their last Game 7, with Nashville dealing out the fourth edition of Honda Center postseason sorrow last April.
But if you're looking for a shred of redemption, you might as well go full bore.
The importance of a regular-season contest October doesn't compare to spring in the Stanley Cup playoffs but if there was anything left pent up, the Ducks unleashed it all Wednesday night with a 6-1 rout of the Predators in Nashville's first visit back since its first-round triumph.
A five-goal explosion came in the second period, the usual troublesome spot for the Ducks (3-3-2). And the season-high six in all came every way possible, with two coming on the power play, two shorthanded and two at even strength.
Jakob Silfverberg scored the first two in the second and then Corey Perry, Andrew Cogliano and Ryan Kesler joined in as the Ducks showed they didn't miss injured center Ryan Getzlaf for a night. Nick Ritchie also had a first-period goal to open the scoring.
Meanwhile, Pekka Rinne _ the Ducks' Game 7 main nemesis on that April night _ wasn't good and neither were his teammates in committing ghastly turnover after ghastly turnover and letting the Ducks cruise up ice on odd-man rushes or clean breakaways.
Rinne let Ritchie's second goal of the season slip over his left pad. Perry ended his night at 15:04 of the second by curling into the slot area and whipping a wrist shot through the Finnish netminder.
Ten different Ducks got on the score sheet in their bust-out performance after getting shut down at San Jose just 24 hours earlier. Silfverberg, Cam Fowler and Sami Vatanen had multi-point efforts. Michael Sgarbossa got his second NHL point and first with the Ducks.
Silfverberg's first two scores of the season may be the biggest development. The two-way winger buried the possibility of another ice-cold start after going his first 16 games of 2014-15 without a goal and the opening 19 of last season before finding the net.
His first Wednesday came shorthanded as he beat Rinne with a wrist shot on a perfect 2-on-1 setup by Ducks defenseman Shea Theodore. And then with Nashville's Ryan Johansen serving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for barking too much at the linesman, Silfverberg snapped in a wrister as Kesler provided an effective screen.
Cogliano greeted Predators backup Marek Mazanec with a breakaway shorthanded score, pulling him into a tie with Perry for the Ducks' early goal lead with four. Fowler's two assists continues his hot offensive start as he has seven points in his first eight games.
John Gibson savored all the offensive support on a far easier night than his unexpected relief work of an injured Jonathan Bernier in Tuesday's overtime loss to San Jose. Gibson stopped 28 shots with the Predators' Colin Wilson getting the only one past him.
