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After a pair of Game 7 matchups in Wednesday's Stanley Cup playoff action, the conference finals are set.

And the final night of second-round action was all about a couple of birds -- the Ducks and the Penguins:

Pens hand the Capitals yet another early playoff exit

Down go the Washington Capitals.

Again.

After storming back into their second-round showdown with the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins, forcing a Game 7 with a dominant series-saving victory two nights before, the Presidents' Trophy winners were outdone at home on Wednesday, held scoreless and stripped of a trip to the Eastern Conference finals thanks to a shutdown performance from Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pens in a 2-0 decision.

The Penguins' up-close and personal defense near the net was far more prominent than, say, a rare third-period Game 7 fight between Brooks Orpik and Scott Wilson. And it was the driving force behind Pittsburgh's shutout of Alex Ovechkin and the Caps.

Keeping the Caps frantic inside their own blue line, the defending title winners got an early goal from elimination-game stud Bryan Rust and added a much needed insurance goal in the third thanks to a backhander from Patric Hornqvist that caught Braden Holtby off guard. But it was Fleury, who made stop after stop against Washington's nearly 30 shots on goal, not to mention his fellow blueliners, who did the dirty work to send the Caps home for the second consecutive season.

Holtby, with some acrobatic moves in front of his own net, stopped Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel from capitalizing on lots of space to shoot. But his efforts against Crosby, who was also decked early in the third before a round of applause from the Washington crowd, were hardly enough to overcome a blanketing performance from Pittsburgh's own "D," which will take on a club in the Ottawa Senators that specializes in defensive work, for a shot at defending the Stanley Cup.

Cue the calls for a Caps rebuild, and get ready for Pittsburgh, outnumbered in talent and health but superior in production Wednesday and this series, to make a run at another title.

Anaheim claims the second round's wildest series in convincing fashion

Unlike the Capitals, the Anaheim Ducks were all about making up for their recent postseason woes on Wednesday, overcoming a shaky 1-0 first-period hole to clamp down on the offensively loaded Edmonton Oilers and claim both a 2-1 victory and trip to the Western Conference finals.

With another gem of an outing from Ryan Getzlaf and Ryan Kesler, the latter of whom used some crafty stick work to set up the Ducks' tying second-period goal, Anaheim shook off early nerves to take -- and hold -- its first Game 7 lead in five years. Some quality work from John Gibson in the net helped along the way, as did an overpowering performance from the blue line, where the Ducks logged 39 hits and barely allowed the Connor McDavid-led Oilers offense to reach a double-digit shots on goal mark in the final two periods.

Nick Ritchie's third-period goal for Anaheim barely slipped past Cam Talbot, deflecting in the net after slipping under the latter's armpit. It was an odd, albeit game-changing, mark against a goalie who otherwise did his best to shift around and shut down a controlling Ducks attack.

And it capped a series that saw stark ups and downs from both sides of the Pacific Division battle.

The Oilers, a youthful underdog with tons of offense, surprised out of the gate with a 2-0 series lead before dropping three straight amid an Anaheim surge and a debated overtime-inducing non-call, then exploding with a 7-1 rout in Game 6. But the Ducks, who erased a slow start Wednesday with a powerful final two periods, are the ones who will advance to take on a similarly hot team in the Nashville Predators.

Anaheim enters the conference finals after scoring 19 goals in six second-round games.