The Bruins responded by scoring twice in a 1:20 span early in the second period.
Coyle tied it 1-1 at 1:41 of the second period on the power play, knocking in a centering pass from Pastrnak. Grzelcyk gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead at 3:01, scoring past Gibson from the right circle during a 4-on-4.
“It doesn’t matter how many goals you’re up, you’re never that safe,” Coyle said. “You can’t get complacent, and you want to always be in attack mode and do it the right way.”
Pastrnak extended it to 3-1 at 16:40, following up his own shot from the left circle and chipping in the loose puck at the net front.
While on the penalty kill at 7:19 of the second, Bruins forward John Beecher nearly scored his first NHL goal on a 3-on-2 rush, but missed the open net with a shot off the post. The play represented one of multiple missed opportunities for Boston to put the game further out of reach.
“I thought the game was over twice,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “We could have extended our lead to four or five [goals]. We had many opportunities to do it, and we didn’t finish the game. So, you couple those things together, it’s inexcusable. You can’t be up 3-1 with five minutes left and end up tied and going to overtime.”
The game had added meaning for Ducks coach Greg Cronin, who is from Arlington, Mass, and has both coaching and personal ties to the Boston area.
“I’ve been here a lot,” Cronin said. “I kind of had a moment on the bench in the first period thinking, you know, ‘I’m the head coach in the Garden.’ … Some of those memories [at TD Garden in the past] flashed through, but like I said, I just kind of focus on the game and what’s at hand for me as a coach.”
NOTES: Carlsson (18 years, 304 days) became the third-youngest player in franchise history with a multipoint game behind Oleg Tverdovsky (18 years, 250 days; three assists on Jan. 23, 1995) and McTavish (18 years, 256 days; one goal and one assist on Oct. 13, 2021). … The Ducks ended Boston’s 14-game regular-season win streak dating back to Mar. 30 last season. … Matthew Poitras had one assist to extend his point streak (three goals, one assist) to three games and became the first teenager since McAvoy (four games and three games in 2017-18) to record a streak of that length for the Bruins.