Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle felt his decision was simple: Call the timeout.
It worked out very well for his team Thursday night.
Josh Manson and Rickard Rakell scored second-period goals to lead the Ducks to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Bruins.
Trailing 2-0 after the Bruins scored both goals in a 13-second span, Carlyle called time out and his team came charging back.
“You’re always looking for ways to motivate and stall the opposition when the momentum is all in their favor,” he said. “You hope it does. Sometimes you do it and it doesn’t have any affect and you look like a dummy. `Why’d you do it?”‘
Andrew Cogliano and Kevin Bieksa also scored for the Ducks, who won for the seventh time in nine games. Jonathan Bernier stopped 31 shots.
“When you call a timeout, there’s not much that needs to be said,” Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf said. “Everyone knows what’s going on. It’s just a matter of being relaxed.”
Zdeno Chara, Austin Czarnik and David Krejci had Boston’s goals. It was the Bruins’ fifth loss in six games (1-3-2).
Boston’s backup goaltender Anton Khudobin made 23 saves. The Bruins have won just one game that regular netminder Tuukka Rask hasn’t started.
The Bruins lost 4-3 in overtime at Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
“Back-to-backs are tough, but we’ve got to be better,” Chara said.
After overcoming a two-goal deficit in the first period, Anaheim moved ahead 3-2 just 55 seconds into the second when Manson scored off his own rebound.
The Bruins retied it at 3 on Krejci’s power-play goal before the Dunks regained the lead on Rakell’s goal. Alone at the edge of the crease, he banged home the rebound of Sami Vatanen’s shot from the point for his eighth goal in 11 games.
It could have been more, but Anaheim hit the post twice after taking the lead.
Bernier was a bit lucky midway into the third when he deflected a shot and the puck caromed off the post behind him, but he dived and covered it in the crease before a Boston player could push it into the net.
“They came at us. It shows a lot of character of this team to bounce back from 2-0,” Bernier said. “We get that timeout and to go out and score a goal is big.”
Bernier stopped Torey Krug’s shot from the left circle with 17 seconds to play.
Boston had jumped ahead 2-0 on goals by Chara and Czarnik midway into the opening period.
Chara fired a slap shot from the point that went past Bernier’s glove. On the ensuing shift, Czarnik one-timed Ryan Spooner’s pass from the bottom of the left faceoff circle and the puck slipped inside the left post.
Carlyle then called the timeout and his team responded a few minutes later.
Cogliano sliced it to 2-1 at 12:44 after the rebound of his wrist shot caromed into the net off Krejci.
“After the timeout, they came hard and it was a tough break,” Krejci said. “It was me that put it in.”
The Ducks tied it when Bieksa stepped out of the penalty box, collected a pass from Getzlaf and skated in on a clean breakaway before slipping a wrister by Khudobin.
NOTES: The Bruins recalled LW Anton Blidh from AHL’s Providence and sent down F Danton Heinan. … Ducks LW Cogliano played in his 735th consecutive game, the sixth-longest streak in league history. He’s two behind Jay Bouwmeester. … The Bruins lead the league with eight players who made their NHL debuts this season, and Arizona is second with six. No other team entered Thursday with more than four.
UP NEXT
Ducks: Play their third of a six-game trip Saturday at Detroit.
Bruins: Host the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday afternoon in their second of three straight at TD Garden.
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