Recap: Ducks Snap Boston's 18-Game Point Streak With Gutsy 3-1 Victory

Fresh off the All-Star Break in the thick of a tightly contested Western Conference playoff race, the Ducks opened their all-important five-game road trip with a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Tuesday.

Coming off a five-game homestand that saw the Ducks win four of five, they pounced on the Bruins early in the opening frame and used another stellar goaltending performance from John Gibson and Ryan Miller (in the late stages of regulation) to give them their ninth win over the last 13 games (9-3-1), 11th victory over the last 16 (11-4-1) and their 26th victory of the season (26-17-9, 59 points).
Furthermore, Anaheim's win also snapped Boston's incredible 18-game point streak. The Bruins came into the game with a 14-0-4 mark over that span, their longest point streak since a 13-0-5 stretch from Dec. 28, 1968-Feb. 5, 1969. In addition, Boston had gone 17-1-4 in its last 22 games and 23-3-4 in its last 30 overall entering tonight's game. The loss snapped a nine-game point streak at home for the Bruins (7-0-2) and put an end to what had been a near-perfect month of January (8-1-2, including tonight's regulation loss).
Jakob Silfverberg opened the scoring and Adam Henrique scored his 10th and 11th goals as a Duck, which also established a season-high six-game point streak, his longest streak since a six-game run from Feb. 27-March 8, 2014 as a member of the New Jersey Devils. Gibson made 25 saves in 52:35 TOI before leaving the game due to an apparent injury. Miller, who also came on in relief in Anaheim's shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets last Thursday, finished tonight's game with five saves on six shots.
"We got right back to the game we played before our break," said Henrique. "We wanted to start this road trip off on the right foot. We did a good job in the first period getting a lead and playing with the lead. We stuck together and kept playing."
Anaheim increased its winning streak against Boston to a staggering nine consecutive games along with points in 10 in a row (9-0-1). In addition, the Ducks improved to 12-1-1 in their last 14 matchups against the Bruins, including four consecutive wins at TD Garden.
Anton Khudobin made 24 saves in the loss for the Bruins (29-11-8, 66 points), just the sixth defeat in regulation at home for the Bruins, who came in with a 16-5-4 mark at TD Garden.
"It's huge," Henrique said, on starting the road trip off with a win. "We got something rolling here at home and wanted to continue it on the road. Everyone came to play. Full team effort. We're going to need that for the full road trip."
The Ducks opened the scoring on a fortuitous bounce off the leg of the NHL's tallest player, Zdeno Chara, at the 9:04 mark of the opening period. It began with a shot on goal from Cam Fowler, who put it on net as Silfverberg crashed the crease. After Khudobin reached for it, the puck bounced off the 6-foot-9 Chara and across the stripe to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead. The goal gave Silfverberg his 12th goal of the season and 16th point (7g/9a) in his last 22 games.

Anaheim increased its lead to 2-0 when Henrique unloaded a wicked snap shot from the right faceoff dot on the power play at the 13:59 mark of the first period. With the goal, Henrique established a season-high six-game point streak (seven points, 5g/2a). His last six-game point streak came Feb. 27-March 8, 2014 (11 points, 9g/2a) with the New Jersey Devils.

Fowler and Rickard Rakell factored in on both goals giving them multi-point efforts in the opening frame. Rakell's second assist of the night gave him five points (2g/3a) in his last four games and 17 points (10g/7a) in his last 16 overall.
Gibson kept it 2-0 during a scoreless second period that saw the 24-year-old netminder make 13 saves after turning aside just five in the opening frame. Among his stops in the second period were several highlight-reel saves, including point-blank opportunities from David Pastrnak and Tim Schaller.
Gibson came up big again in the third period. His biggest save of the final frame came midway through the period when he made a dazzling glove save on Torey Krug, who had pinched from the left point and walked in all alone. Gibson left the game with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation after he appeared to be shaken up earlier in the period. Miller, summonsed in the late stages of a game for the second game in a row, finished the remainder of the contest.
"I haven't really talked to him," head coach Randy Carlyle said, on the status of Gibson. "I don't think anybody wants to come out of the game. It's a wise thing to do to make sure you're 100 percent before you go back in. He felt he wasn't that way. We've got Miller, and he's done the job."
The Bruins cut the deficit in half with 40.7 seconds left on the clock off a point shot from Ryan Spooner, but that was the closest they would get.
Henrique scored the insurance marker into an empty net with seven seconds left on the clock for his second goal of the game to give the Ducks their third consecutive victory.

Anaheim's five-game road trip continues on Thursday when they take on the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre at 4 p.m. PT.