What we learned from the Ducks’ 3-2 overtime victory in Boston

What we learned from the Ducks’ 3-2 overtime victory over the Boston Bruins:

+ Team captain Ryan Getzlaf had proclaimed the Ducks’ performances in their previous two games, a 7-2 loss to the New York Rangers and a 5-3 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, were unacceptable. On Thursday, he and Corey Perry did something about it, with Perry scoring the tying goal in the third period on a setup from Getzlaf, and Getzlaf scoring the winner 3:09 into overtime. It’s no coincidence the duo, often called “the twins” because they are friends and usually are linemates, led the way to a confidence-restoring victory.

Frederik Andersen backed it up with 27 saves and the Ducks outhit the Bruins, 44-32, but it was truly a twin killing.

“Those two are the leaders offensively, and their job is to score goals and give our team wins,” defenseman Francois Beauchemin said. “And we have to do our job on the back end, and Freddie played a really good game in net tonight for us.”

Perry considered it a matter of course that he and Getzlaf took responsibility for reversing the Ducks’ slide. “That’s what we’re here for. We’re leaders, and sometimes you’ve got to say stuff, but sometimes you’ve got to lead by example,” Perry said. “I just try to do my job — go to the front of the net, get sticks on pucks, and it found a way to go in. Getzy made a great play at the end of the game to end it.”

+ The Ducks played well five-on-five, holding Boston to two power-play goals.

“This is the first game in I don’t know how long that we didn’t give up any goals five-on-five. So that’s a very positive thing,” Coach Bruce Boudreau said.

It really hadn’t been that long — a 2-1 victory over Minnesota on March 13 in which the Wild produced only a power-play goal — but it felt like much longer to Boudreau, who saw many reasons to be happy Thursday.

“I don’t think they had any odd-man rushes, that I recall right off the bat, which is again very positive,” he said. “Those are the things you have to do if you want to be successful in April, May and June. You’ve got to do those things. I thought Freddie gave us a good game. He was there. You could tell he was on by the way he was snapping the puck when he was catching it.”

+ The Ducks’ penalty killing needs improvement. They’ve killed 18 of 27 disadvantages over the last eight games, and that must get better. Overall, their success rate is 80.4%, which ranks in the bottom third of the NHL.

“We would have liked to get those two goals back on the PK. That’s another thing that we have to work on,” Beauchemin said. “But that’s for sure a step forward going into Saturday’s game, not giving up any five-on-five goals today.”

Boudreau said he’s not asking for miracles on special teams; the Ducks were 0-for-two on the power play, an area in which they’ve lagged much of the season. They’ve converted 16.4% of their advantages, also in the bottom third.

“We’re not asking them to be the best in the league. We just want to be up in the average a little bit,” he said. “If we can get that straightened out and hope this five-on-five was not an anomaly and more the norm than anything else, then I’ll be happy.”