On Thursday night at the Garden, Claude Julien’s crew fell victim to the Ducks due to poor special-teams play, losing 6-1 because of a punchless power-play attack.
Despite arguably outplaying the Ducks for the majority of the contest, Boston had no bite on its man advantage, going 0-for-6 with just four shots. The only goal scored with the B's on the power play came against Boston in the third frame when the Ducks popped a shorthanded tally to add salt to the already opened wounds.
Anaheim also scored two power-play goals of their own and popped five unanswered tallies after Boston's Marco Sturm netted the first goal of the game in the opening period. Sturm ripped a low slapper from the left circle (on feeds from Marc Savard and Dennis Wideman) that beat Ducks keeper Jonas Hiller through the five hole.
In the other crease, Tim Thomas had 24 stops on 30 shots as he took his second loss of the season.
Ducks 6, Bruins 1
TD Garden, Boston, Mass.
October 8, 2009
Headliner: Teemu Selanne popped back-to-back power-play goals in the second to put the Ducks on top 2-1. Selanne, the active leading goal-scorer in the NHL, now has 581 career goals, good for 18th place in NHL history.
Right winger Corey Perry picked up Anaheim’s third goal of the
night on a brilliant play through the offensive zone. Perry skated
through the crease and held on long enough to lure Thomas out of the
net before sneaking it past a B’s defender and lifting it into the wide-open goal
for the Ducks’ insurance tally.
Perry would later pop the Ducks' sixth and final goal in the third period when the initial save on his breakaway attempt bounced up and deflected off his head and past Thomas into the back of the net.
Grinder: After letting in the game's first goal, Ducks netminder Jonas Hiller kicked aside everything the B's attack threw at him as the three-year veteran picked up his first win of the year by making 33 stops.
Scott Niedermayer, James Wisniewski and Joffrey Lupul each potted a pair of helpers in the Ducks' first win of the season.
Weak Link: The B’s went 0-for-6 on their power play and managed just four shots. In their second-period man-advantage following Luca Sbisa’s hooking call, the B’s not only didn’t score, they even got called for an icing midway through the man-up.
Key Moment: With the Bruins killing off a Matt Hunwick interference call just minutes into the second period, winger Marco Sturm was called for a hooking penalty to join Hunwick in the box and give the Ducks a 5-on-3 advantage. Just seconds later, Selanne slapped one past Tim Thomas to even things at one apiece.
After the tally, the Ducks still had a man-advantage, and as Sturm watched on from the sin bin, the Ducks took a 2-1 lead on Selanne’s second goal in the span of 1:23 when he put home a loose rebound.
What's Next: The Bruins are licking their chops as they welcome the Islanders to town for their fourth of five straight home games to kick off the season.
Last year, the Isles were the worst team in the league with a 26-47-9 record and just 61 points. They were just 9-23-3 on the road. Last season, the B’s feasted on the Islanders, beating them in all four contests and outscoring them 17-6.
This year’s first overall draft pick, 19-year-old center John Tavares, picked up his first career goal and assist in his first game back on Oct. 3 as New York lost in overtime to the defending Stanley Cup champion Penguins.
