ANAHEIM, Calif.
Down two goals after one period on the road, the Boston Bruins did not panic on Friday night at Honda Center. They chipped away in the second, owned the third, and beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 for their fourth straight win — a comeback built on special teams and finished by their best players.
Anaheim controlled the first period, scoring twice and putting Boston in a 2-0 hole in a building that has not been kind to visiting teams early this season. The Ducks skated with pace, finished checks, and forced the Bruins to play from behind for the second time on this trip. At the first intermission, Boston needed a spark. In the second period, it got one from an unlikely source.
Frederic Brunet scored his first NHL goal in the second period to get Boston on the board, cutting the deficit to 2-1 and changing the feel of the game. First goals have a way of lifting an entire bench, and Brunet's did exactly that: the Bruins' shifts got longer in the offensive zone, their forecheck arrived on time, and Anaheim's clean breakouts from the first period started turning into contested ones.
The third period belonged to Boston's power play. David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm both scored on the man advantage in the final frame, completing the comeback and giving the Bruins a lead their structure protected the rest of the way. Boston finished 3-for-4 on the power play for the night — the single biggest statistical story of the game — while its penalty kill went a perfect 4-for-4 against Anaheim's power play.
That special-teams sweep is how road comebacks actually happen. Anaheim had four chances with the extra man to restore a two-goal lead or tie the game late, and Boston's killers closed all four, clearing pucks, winning faceoffs, and keeping the middle of the ice closed. At the other end, every Boston power play looked dangerous, with Pastrnak's one-timer drawing attention and opening space for everyone else on the unit.
Behind it all, Michael DiPietro earned his first NHL win in net for Boston. A first win is a milestone every goaltender remembers, and DiPietro's came the hard way — on the road, down two early, with the game demanding calm saves in the third period while his team pushed for the tying and go-ahead goals. He delivered them, and he leaves Anaheim with the game puck and a win that required real composure.
For Anaheim, the loss will sting because of how it started. A 2-0 first-period lead at home, against a team playing the second half of a road swing, is a position the Ducks expect to convert into points. Instead, the discipline slipped, the penalty kill cracked three times, and the power play — given four opportunities to answer — came up empty each time.
Boston does not get long to enjoy it. The Bruins visit the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, a 9 p.m. ET start that continues a California swing that has already produced two very different kinds of wins. Four straight victories, a power play running at this level, and a young goaltender with his first win in his pocket: the Bruins roll into Los Angeles with momentum that is very real. Follow the rest of the night's hockey in our Golden Knights recap and the sports section, with more in the latest news.
What made the comeback sustainable was Boston's five-on-five patience in the middle period. Trailing teams often cheat for offense and give up the third goal that ends the night. The Bruins did the opposite: they protected the middle, let Brunet's first career goal change the temperature, and trusted that a power play as talented as theirs would get its looks in the third. When those looks came, Pastrnak and Lindholm finished them with the composure of players who have closed out comebacks before.
DiPietro's milestone also reshapes Boston's goaltending picture in a useful way. Every contender needs a third option it trusts over a long season, and a first NHL win earned in a comeback on the road carries a different weight than one earned in a blowout. The Bruins' room celebrated it accordingly — and a confident young goaltender is a genuine asset as the schedule compresses into the winter months.
For Anaheim, the film session will focus on discipline and the penalty kill's structure. Three power-play goals against is a number no team survives often, and the Ducks' own 0-for-4 night with the man advantage turned a game they led for forty minutes into a regulation loss with no points to show for a strong first period. The pieces of a good home performance were there; the special-teams gap erased them.
There is also a standings reality underneath the streak: four straight wins in October bank points that matter enormously in April, when tiebreakers and wild-card races are decided by exactly this kind of early-season road swing. Boston's California trip was circled as a test on the schedule. Through two stops, the Bruins are passing it — first with resilience in Anaheim, and next with a Saturday night test in Los Angeles.
