Devante Smith-Pelly scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period, and Matt Beleskey added his career-best 12th goal in the Anaheim Ducks' 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Monday night.
Frederik Andersen made 32 saves and Sami Vatanen also scored for the Ducks, who reclaimed the Western Conference lead. The Ducks fell out of first place in the overall NHL standings last weekend with their first back-to-back regulation losses of the season.
Brad Marchand and Simon Gagne scored for the Bruins, who have lost three of four.
Tuukka Rask stopped 25 shots as Boston opened a tough four-game Pacific Division road swing without injured veterans David Krejci and captain Zdeno Chara, who didn't make the trip.
Just two days after allowing five goals and getting pulled from a loss at San Jose, Andersen made several big stops in the final two periods as the Ducks barely hung on to their lead. The Danish goalie stopped a clean breakaway by Joe Morrow in the second period, and he scrambled across his crease repeatedly in the final minutes.
Boston largely dominated a scoreless first period, and the Bruins finally scored midway through the second when Marchand was left alone in the slot moments after a Bruins power play ended.
But just 57 seconds after Marchand's first goal since Nov. 4, Vatanen carried the puck into Boston's zone and crashed the net, knocking home Patrick Maroon's rebound.
In his first full NHL season, Vatanen has been responsible for most of the Ducks' offense from the blue line. The Finnish Olympian has six goals, while the other 11 defenseman who have played for injury-plagued Anaheim this season have five combined goals.
Anaheim took the lead with 22 seconds left in the second when Smith-Pelly and Andrew Cogliano created huge traffic in front of Rask. Smith-Pelly reached out for a fortunate tip on Jakob Silfverberg's shot for his first goal in 13 games since Oct. 28, ending a drought for the hard-working 22-year-old who moved from the wing to center four games ago.
After Ryan Getzlaf won a faceoff early in the third, Beleskey increased the Ducks' lead with a nasty wrist shot between two Bruins and into Rask's far top corner.
Gagne trimmed the lead with a redirection goal with 9:40 to play, his first in 18 games since Oct. 16.
NOTES: Newly acquired D Eric Brewer made his home debut for the Ducks, playing 21:15. Anaheim has five injured defensemen, and the club traded Bryan Allen to Montreal last week. ... Beleskey has surpassed his previous career high in goals just 26 games into the season. ... Boston scratched rookie Seth Griffith for just the second time in 18 games.
