In Anaheim Friday night, Rickard Rakell had two strikes in a 5-2 thumping of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Jonathan Bernier made 37 saves to get the win for the Ducks who moved into a second
place tie with the Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division.
Jakob Silfverberg, Sami Vatanen and Patrick Eaves also scored for the Ducks.
Rackell now has 26 goals on the season.
“He makes it look easy, but it’s not that easy,” Silfverberg said of Rakell. “He’s been scoring big goals for us all year.”
The Ducks were pleased to have scored five goals in a game and five goals at even strength.
“We’ve been starved for 5-on-5 offense, so hopefully tonight is a sign we can spread the scoring,” Ducks head coach Randy Carlyle said.
Zach Hyman and Nazem Kadri had goals for the Leafs as Toronto fell to 28-22-14; Toronto has now lost five straight just as other clubs in the eastern conference are getting hot including the New York Islanders.
“I didn’t like the free goals we gave them,” Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. “The NHL is too good a league to think you are going to outscore your mistakes.”
WATCH: All Maple Leafs vs. Ducks highlights
Curtis McElhinney took the loss on 31 saves.
Silfverberg and Rackell scored 16 seconds apart in the second period to give the Ducks a 3-1 lead.
“I guess we got caught with our pants down and it ended up costing us the game,” McElhinney said of the outburst.
he win hes improve to 33-21-10.
“Everyone in this room knows the importance of these games. We knew we had to pick up the pace,” Silfverberg said of the win.

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