Carolina faced the New Jersey Devils in the conference semifinals, which proved surprisingly one-sided, as the Hurricanes beat the Devils in five games.

While they upset the third-seeded Heat in the first round and made it to the conference semifinals for just the third time in franchise history, they lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games.

Having clinched the 2nd overall seed for the Western Conference in the 2008 playoffs, the Hornets beat the Dallas Mavericks in the first round but eventually lost to the defending-champion San Antonio Spurs in seven games in the conference semifinals.

In the 1985 playoffs, Detroit won its first-round series and faced the defending champion Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals.

The team defeated the Chicago Bulls in seven games in the conference semifinals, then the Golden State Warriors in five in the Western Division Finals.

They made the playoffs but managed just one win against Milwaukee in the conference semifinals.

The Ducks defeated the number one seed and President's Trophy winning Sharks in six games in the first round before being eliminated in the conference semifinals by the eventual Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings in seven games.

The 2011-2012 men's basketball team lost in the NWC semifinals putting them in 4th place in the conference.

They went on to lose in the conference semifinals of the playoffs.

In 2011, the Predators finished the regular season 11 – 7, but fell to the Jacksonville Sharks in the conference semifinals by a score of 63 – 48.

Even with the loss of teammates Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote, Sakic still helped the Avalanche get into the playoffs, where they eventually lost to the Anaheim Ducks in the conference semifinals.

The quarterfinals, or the " conference semifinals ," were two-leg aggregate series.

The # 4 seed in each conference will host the # 5 seed in a single match for a place in the conference semifinals against the top seed in its conference.

The conference semifinals will remain two-legged, while the conference finals will change from a single match to a two-leg aggregate series.

Ozoliņš helped the Sharks to move beyond the first round of the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, losing in the conference semifinals.

In the conference semifinals, they defeated the Nashville Predators in five games, thus notching more playoff series wins than they had in their entire NHL history.

They received a bye in the first round of the 2010 Kelly Cup Playoffs before sweeping the Utah Grizzlies in the conference semifinals and the Stockton Thunder in six games to win the National Conference Championship to advance to their 3rd Kelly Cup Finals since joining the league in 2003.

The Steelheads bested Las Vegas in five games, and were swept in four games in the conference semifinals by Alaska.

After clinching the last spot in the West Division with a losing record, the Cougars defeated the number-one seed Portland Winter Hawks in the conference quarterfinals and the third-ranked Spokane Chiefs in the conference semifinals before finally losing to the second-ranked Seattle Thunderbirds in the Western Conference final.

The Roughriders beat Muskegon in the quarterfinals 3 games to 1, but lost in the conference semifinals to Green Bay 3-1.

In their first conference finals since 1996, the Magic beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, which were led by the season's MVP, LeBron James.

After a first round win over the Washington Wizards, the Cavaliers rebounded from a 0 – 2 deficit in the second round against the Detroit Pistons, winning three consecutive games to come one game away from the conference finals.

The Cavaliers were also the conference worst.

The Cavaliers have dominated their conference with the men winning 10 of 13 conference titles since its inception in 1997, and are frequently ranked among the nation's top 25 for NAIA small colleges.

The Cavaliers had also only notched one winning record in Atlantic Coast Conference play, had only finished higher than fourth twice, and had only won 33 conference games in 29 years of ACC play.

With 10 national championships, 80 top-five national finishes, 121 region titles, 156 conference titles, more than 1, 000 All-American athletes, and more than 200 Academic All-American athletes, the Cavaliers are successful both on and off the fields and courts.

They then faced the Boston Celtics in the conference finals.

Whenever they did make the playoffs, they faced the near-certainty of having to get past the Boston Bruins or Montreal Canadiens to make it to the conference finals.

The conference set out to address the economic problems faced by the Malay-Muslims.

This would normally be the conference champion unless that team qualifies for the BCS ( previously, the Mountain West Champion faced off against the Conference USA champion in the Liberty Bowl from the formation of the conference in 1998 until 2005, when the contract ran out ).

She is a very lovely lady, but on hearing of her arrival, when Ted faced the press, the majority of questions posed were about his wife ... during an England cricket team press conference!

Due to the way the playoffs were structured at the time, he also faced the near-certainty of having to get past his former team in order to make the conference finals.

In the playoffs the Colts faced the North Bay Centennials in the conference quarter finals, winning the series four games to two.

In their first trip to the eastern conference finals the Colts faced the Belleville Bulls whom they quickly defeated in 5 games, winning their first Bobby Orr Trophy.

The Colts would finish 3rd in the conference and faced a tough Mississauga squad in the first round.

A deal was hoped for as late as May 15, the day Miller was scheduled to hold a press conference Ohio political observers thought he would use to announce his withdrawal, but Miller stayed in the race and the two incumbents faced each other in the Republican primary on June 2, 1992.

In August 2004, the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, addressing an international religious conference in Brussels, stated that in 10 years in the country he had never faced anti-Semitism.

In the conference semifinals the Celtics faced the Philadelphia 76ers led by Doug Collins.

This actually happened in the 2006 NBA Playoffs when the two best teams in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, both from the Southwest Division, faced one another in the Western Conference Semifinals while the 3rd seed, the Northwest Division-leading Denver Nuggets, had fewer wins than the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th seeds. The NBA proposed and approved of the current format to ensure that the best two teams of a conference can meet no earlier than the Conference Finals.

The Panthers finished fourth in the Eastern conference and faced the Rangers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

This was the first time two black head coaches faced each other in a Pac-10 conference game.

In February 1971, when Captain Jerry B. Finley of Louisiana faced dismissal for refusing to shake hands with a black officer, Rarick called a news conference in Finley's defense.

Weber faced his toughest test after starting the conference schedule with an even 3 – 3 mark.

In the late 1980s, faced with growing dissatisfaction over a stagnant economy, the Kérékou government agreed to convene a national conference that would lead the country towards multiparty democracy.

Now in the conference championship, the Saints faced the Vikings.