ANAHEIM — It wasn’t quite the 7-5 heart-stopper from last month in Boston, but there was no shortage of thrills at Honda Center on Wednesday night as the Ducks completed a season sweep of the Bruins with a 4-3 victory.
Jansen Harkins, captain Radko Gudas, Ryan Strome and Ian Moore each scored a goal for the Pacific Division-leading Ducks (13-6-1, 27 points), while Mason McTavish contributed two assists. Lukáš Dostál made 36 saves.
Morgan Geekie scored twice for Boston (12-10-0, 24 points), with Mikey Eyssimont adding a goal. Former Duck Hampus Lindholm chipped in two assists, and Joonas Korpisalo stopped 29 shots.
Both teams feature first-year head coaches and, in Boston’s case, a first-time head coach in Marco Sturm, the NHL’s first German-born bench boss. Neither club made the playoffs last season but both were in playoff spots Wednesday, propelled by recent seven-game winning streaks.
The Ducks have won nine of their past 12 games and the Bruins lost for just the third time in 11 games.
After retroceding a lead they’d held since the third minute of the game, the Ducks reclaimed it with 3:35 to play. Moore started the play with an outlet pass and finished it with a one-timer from above the circles, his second goal of the campaign, off a feed from Leo Carlsson.
Early in the third period, Gudas clipped Eyssimont in the neutral zone and sent him spinning like a top before he grabbed his knee in obvious discomfort. Jeffrey Viel stepped in and challenged Gudas to a fight, earning Viel a game misconduct and the Ducks a power play.
Yet the Ducks failed to cash in and instead gave Boston a power-play opportunity from Harkins’ needless cross-check of David Pastrnak, which led to Geekie’s second goal off a redirection in the high slot.
In the middle frame, Boston continued its relentless assault and Dostál repelled puck after puck, until with 93 seconds remaining Eyssimont waited out Moore in the right circle before creating a shooting angle to beat Dostál short side to whittle the Ducks’ lead to one goal.
The previous goal loomed large, and the Ducks scored it not once but twice.
First, McTavish tucked the puck inside the post but his goal was disallowed because he had made contact with Korpisalo, who never had a chance to reset his position. Then, the Ducks deposited a goal for real, on the power play.
McTavish’s low-flying shot-pass was deflected skyward from the side of the net by Strome for his first goal of the season.
The first period had the feel of a track meet that gave way to a boxing match, with the two teams combining for 29 shots and Frank Vatrano finishing the frame in the dressing room after he took down Alex Steeves in a late-period fight.
That scrap came on the heels of a phenomenal save by Dostál, who robbed Nikita Zadorov of an equalizer as he attempted to finish a two-on-one rush.
Such near-misses abounded for both sides, but the Bruins converted just once, scoring on the power play with 5:02 left in the period. Geekie’s tip was touched twice but never controlled by Dostál, who faced 18 shots in the period. In 42 instances this season, an NHL team has recorded 18 or fewer shots on goal in an entire game.
Strome, Cutter Gauthier and Alex Killorn were among the Ducks with unfulfilled chances during the opening 20 minutes, during which they scored twice.
At 6:29, Gudas notched his first goal of the season off a snapshot through heavy traffic after a solid pass from McTavish and some resourceful puck protection by Beckett Sennecke.
The Ducks got things rolling four minutes earlier, after Moore’s puck recovery led to a Nikita Nesterenko shot attempt that hit Ross Johnston’s body. Johnston moved the puck across to Harkins for his second goal of the season and Johnston’s first point since Oct. 25.
More to come on this story.