The Boston Bruins’ 18-game point streak, the team’s longest in four decades, ended Tuesday night in a 3-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks at TD Garden.
The B’s had a chance to tie the score late in the third period when Ryan Spooner cut the Anaheim lead to 2-1 with 42 seconds remaining. But an empty-net tally by Adam Henrique sealed the Ducks’ ninth straight win over the Bruins.
For the first time in a while, the Bruins had a lot of trouble scoring. That said, they were without their top scorer in Brad Marchand (suspension), No. 1 defenseman Charlie McAvoy (injury), and forwards Anders Bjork and David Backes left during the game with injuries.
The B’s fall to 29-11-8 with the loss, while the Ducks improve to 25-17-9.
Here’s how it all went down.
TRAILING EARLY
In what has been a trend over the last two weeks, the B’s again found themselves trailing first when Zdeno Chara crashed into Bruins goalie Anton Khudobin and the puck trickled over the goal line.
Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg was credited with the goal — his 12th of the season, and assisted by Ryan Getzlaf and Cam Fowler.
The Ducks jumped out to a quick 8-2 edge in shots on goal as the Bruins began the first 10Â minutes of the period sluggishly.
DOUBLE UP
The Ducks increased their lead to 2-0 when Henrique beat Khudobin with a quick, accurate snapshot for a power-play goal at 13:59 of the first period. The tally was unassisted.
A BIT BETTER
The Bruins played much better in the second period, highlighted by an early power play during which they doubled their shot total and did everything but score. Boston held a 25-11 edge in shot attempts and a 13-4 lead in shots on goal in the period, but couldn’t beat Ducks goalie John Gibson, who stood tall and made 13 saves under heavy pressure from all areas of the ice.
Bruins forward Anders Bjork, who left the game in the first period, was ruled out in the second period with an upper body injury.
COMEBACK FALLS SHORT
Gibson appeared to be shaken up after getting drilled with a Patrice Bergeron shot 33 seconds into the third period, but he remained in the game after a two-minute delay. The Ducks netminder seemed to be laboring pretty bad and finally was replaced Ryan Miller at 12:38 of the frame.
He wasn’t the only player to exit in the final period, as Bruins forward David Backes took a blindside hit from Ducks forward Nick Ritchie. No penalty was called. A few minutes later, Chara and Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf got into a brief scuffle along the boards. Both players were given a minor penalty for roughing.
The Bruins gave a valiant effort late in the period and scored with 42 seconds remaining, but the Ducks scored an empty-net tally with seven seconds to go to make it 3-1.
UP NEXT
The Bruins will host the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night with a 7 p.m. ET puck drop at TD Garden.
