Andersen makes 38 saves, Ducks shut out Bruins

ANAHEIM -- Goaltender Frederik Andersen's scheduled night off turned into one to remember when he made 38 saves to help the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Boston Bruins 4-0 on Friday at Honda Center.
Andersen, who took John Gibson's spot in the goalie rotation after Gibson came down with the flu on Thursday, earned his second shutout of the season and the fifth of his career. He's 4-0-0 against Boston in his career and is 9-1-0 in his past 10 starts.
"He was outstanding tonight," Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Both goalies are pushing each other to be better every night, and when that happens you're going to be successful."

The Ducks have been switching between Gibson and Andersen every two games, and the strategy has been effective. Gibson and Andersen each rank among the NHL's top eight in goals-against average, and Anaheim has played well since Boudreau implemented a rotation, so he says there's no reason not to continue to rotate them at least through the rest of the regular season.

By playing the way he played against Boston, Andersen said he hopes to make Boudreau's decision on playing time a little more difficult.
"I just play," Andersen said. "I just play to the best of my capability and give my best out there every time. That's the most fun for me and everyone else in this room. We just want to do our best to help the team out."
Bruins coach Claude Julien said Andersen made the difference.
"I thought their goaltender really stood tall when he had to," Julien said. "We had as many chances and opportunities as they did tonight, but they cashed in and we didn't."

Jamie McGinn and Ryan Kesler scored in the first 4:07 of the game for the Ducks (39-22-9), who moved within four points of the first-place Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division and are three points ahead of the third-place San Jose Sharks. Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell scored in the third period, helping the Ducks finish 2-1-0 on their three-game homestand.
Goaltender Jonas Gustavsson made 22 saves for the Bruins (39-25-8), who play the finale of their three-game California trip at Los Angeles on Saturday. Boston, which lost 3-2 at San Jose on Tuesday, has lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Jan. 11-13. The Bruins are second in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Boston has played one more game.
The Ducks scored twice in a span of 1:16 to take an early 2-0 lead. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry were reunited on the top line, and that line scored on its first shift of the game. Perry's blast from the left wing hit McGinn in front of the net and went past Gustavsson 2:51 into the game for a 1-0 lead.
Kesler tipped in the rebound from a shot by Andrew Cogliano at 4:07 to make it 2-0. It was Kesler's fourth point in the past three games and his 16th goal of the season.

The Bruins spent the rest of the night trying to play catch-up.
"It's always tough to give up two goals that early," Gustavsson said. "It gives the other team a lot of momentum. It's an uphill battle, but I think we bounced back and had some good chances. We worked hard and we tried to stick to the game plan but tonight the puck didn't bounce our way offensively."
Lindholm put the Ducks up 3-0 when he scored 58 seconds into the third period. Getzlaf sent a pass from behind the goal line to Lindholm at the edge of the left circle, and Lindholm one-timed it past Gustavsson. It was his ninth goal, the most he's had in his three NHL seasons, and ended a 13-game drought.

Lindholm assisted on Rakell's 19th of the season at 14:28.
Anaheim begins a five-game Canadian road trip at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday.
"It's always good to go on the road trip feeling good with a win, especially one that's going to be as tough as this one,' Boudreau said. "If you go in and you'd lost two in a row, then all of a sudden it's a different mindset. But we have a better mindset going into Winnipeg."