ANAHEIM — The Boston Bruins were once billed as “big and bad” but they were just plain bad at Honda Center on Wednesday night, when the Ducks devoured them, 6-2, in perhaps their most commanding victory of 2024-25. The Ducks moved to within two points of a .500 points percentage while Boston d ropped its seventh straight decision. Boston has been outscored by 23 goals during an ill-timed, injury-riddled and departure-influenced funk. Already depleted on defense with no Charlie McAvoy or Hampus Lindholm, Nikita Zadorov missed Wednesday’s game (personal). “We challenged (our players) to come out and initiate the pace of the game,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “The Bruins are down, Zadorov left, they’re thin. So, we wanted to try and create a difficult environment right from the beginning, and I thought we were able to do that for the better part of the game.” Jackson LaCombe scored a goal and assisted on one of two tallies by Leo Carlsson, with Nikita Nesterenko, Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish also lighting the lamp. Alex Killorn contributed two assists. All five goal-scorers were aged 23 or under. John Gibson had 23 saves. Morgan Geekie had a goal and set up one by leading scorer David Pastrnak for Boston. Joonas Korpisalo bore the brunt of another listless night and made some errors of his own, stopping 31 shots. McAvoy practiced in a non-contact jersey on Tuesday, but did not play Wednesday and will not return during this road trip, Boston coach Joe Sacco said. That Boston practice was focused on puck battles and competitiveness following a 7-2 booting by the Kings on Sunday. Those two days off seemed to do little for the flagging, sagging Bruins, who were out-scored 13-4 in Southern California. The Ducks domineered Boston in the first period, tripling them up with a 15-5 shot advantage, though they didn’t score until 2:27 remained, and did so shorthanded. Carlsson emerged from a battle with possession, weaving into the neutral zone and feathering a pass to Killorn. Killorn’s return pass eluded the long reach of Mason Lohrei, setting up Carlsson’s rising short-side shot. Killorn’s silky saucer pass was his 300th career assist. “A soft saucer, just straight in the air, it was perfect,” Carlsson said. The Ducks’ dominance continued in the second period. They maintained a 3:1 shot ratio, 28-9, and had 15 high-danger chances to the Bruins’ one through 40 minutes. They first pounced on one of Boston’s many miscues. Michael Callahan failed to corral the puck at the offensive blue line, sending him stumbling into a neutral-zone footrace with Nesterenko. The Brooklyn-born Nesterenko zoomed ahead and slipped a point-blank shot through Korpisalo at the 13:58 mark, his third goal in four games. During that play, Callahan took his frustration out on Jansen Harkins, cross-checking him up high (Harkins later avenged the hit in a third-period fight). Less than a minute into the ensuing power play, the Ducks racked up 14 penalty minutes during a scrum near the boards. Frank Vatrano took exception to Parker Wotherspoon and slammed him to the ice, pinning him amid the fracas. As a result, the Bruins soon had a two-man advantage, on which they converted through a quick-hitting play to Pastrnak off an offensive-zone faceoff at 16:20. Pastrnak, however, was shadowed diligently most of the night. “Every game, there’s a player or two that we try to educate our team about,” Cronin said. “One of the things that (Pastrnak) does, and the reason he’s such an elite offensive guy, is he’ll time his routes out of the zone. He creates two-on-ones; he sees things before they happen. You see that he rotates away from the puck flow, so he finds those soft areas on the ice.” The Ducks responded with goals 48 seconds apart at 17:57 and 18:45. LaCombe recovered a loose puck that was sitting on the nylon at the base of the net, sending it skyward. The puck became a fluttering, magic bullet as it ricocheted off Korpisalo’s back, struck the crossbar and then banked home off Korpisalo’s helmet. Gauthier added an insurance marker as Killorn recorded his second primary assist of the evening with some industriousness on the forecheck and a pass for Gauthier, who shuffled an ostensibly weak shot that snuck under Korpisalo’s pad. “We got some real lucky bounces. Jackson’s goal went off the goalie’s back, Cutter’s goal, I don’t know how that got through him,” Cronin said. “It kind of balanced out in our favor: we had plenty of chances early and we didn’t score, and then were able to get some lucky ones in the second.” The youth brigade continued its assault in the final frame when LaCombe stole the puck back from Pastrnak in the Boston zone before dishing it to Carlsson, who rifled a shot for his second goal of the game and 18th of the campaign. Carlsson’s six points in three career games against Boston are the most he has against any franchise. McTavish, who had been dangerous for much of the night, and Geekie, who also had some jump, exchanged goals in a 21-second spurt between 12:25 and 12:46. McTavish scored unassisted after he picked off Pastrnak, this time after he made a casual backhand pass toward the offensive blue line. McTavish dashed all the way to the left faceoff dot and tucked a far-side snipe under the crossbar. Geekie clawed back that goal, but it wasn’t much of a balm for the sting of seven straight losses, almost all of them lopsided. UP NEXT The Ducks will welcome another wayward “Original Six” opponent, the New York Rangers, on Friday at 7 p.m. Related Articles Ducks look to hand Bruins their 7th consecutive loss Ducks’ playoff hopes dwindle with loss to Carolina Ducks’ 5-game homestand doesn’t start easy with Carolina John Gibson, Trevor Zegras lead Ducks past Predators Ducks look to salvage road trip with finale in Nashville ...read more read less