The Anaheim Ducks have offense issues all season, at least that was the case ahead of the Tuesday game with the Boston Bruins when the Ducks skated off with a 6-2 win.
Six different skaters scored for the Ducks including Corey Perry, David Perron, Ryan Kesler, Shea Theodore, Mike Santorelli, and Kevin Bieksa.
Frederik Andersen made 32 saves for the win – file photo by Brent Clark
“It’s been good,” Perry said. “I mean things have turned around. We dug ourselves a whole early in the season, and it’s not easy to get out of. We’ve been pushing for a while, and good things are starting to happen now, and we’ve just got to continue that.”
Jonas Gustavsson made 14 saves on 16 shots in the first period but left the game for illness. He was taken to hospital for observation but the Bruins did not release any additional information.
The Bruins’ two goals came from defensemen Zach Trotman and Zdeno Chara.
“We were in a 4-2 hockey game in the third where I thought we got better,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said. “We’re still a young hockey club, and there are a lot of guys that realized tonight that when you play against a heavy team, you got to be ready to play. We did in spurts, but there were other times that we weren’t there, and probably after that third goal, we kind of let our guard down a little bit, which hurt us in the second.
“So again, we chock those up to trying to get better as a team, and when you’re playing those kind of teams, we have to have good execution, good pace and speed to our game, and when we did, we were able to certainly take some of the game to them.”
Two goals in the final minute of the third put an end to the Bruins.
This was also another game where the Ducks managed to surrender the first goal of the game and not allow it to alter the game plan.
“That comes from belief that you can come back,” Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “You don’t hang your head and shoulders slump or anything like that. You believe, ‘OK, there’s a lot of game left. Let’s respond.’ At the beginning of the year, we were, ‘Oh no, they scored a goal, there’s no chance we’re going to come back.’ So it’s a big difference in the mindset right now.”
Frederik Andersen made 32 saves for the win.
Tuukka Rask had 19 saves in relief of Gustavsson.
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