The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim entered their first Stanley Cup Finals in franchise history after upsetting two heavily favored teams: sweeping the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Detroit Red Wings, defeating the Dallas Stars in six games and sweeping the upstart Minnesota Wild in the Western Conference Finals largely due to the stellar goaltending of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who only allowed one goal during the entire series. Supporting Giguere were stand-out players captain Paul Kariya, Petr Sykora, Adam Oates and Rob Niedermayer, brother of then-Devils star defenceman Scott Niedermayer.