Nick Bonino sparks Canucks to 2-1 shootout win over Ducks

Those past practice shots Nick Bonino and Ryan Kesler fired at their former teams’ goalies came in handy Sunday night.

The only difference was that Bonino’s shootout effort crossed the goal line.

When Kesler’s hit iron, his ex-team, the Vancouver Canucks, celebrated a 2-1 shootout victory over the Ducks at Honda Center.

It was the third consecutive home overtime loss for the Ducks (10-3-3). And after this star-crossed game, Bonino, the young center the Ducks sent away in a June trade to land Kesler, left town with some satisfaction.

“Doesn’t get much better than that,” Bonino said after beating Anaheim’s Frederik Andersen with a low shot that took its time passing underneath the goalie.

“He’s a good goalie — patient, seen a lot of my moves. So I wanted to fake a couple ways and see if I could sneak it in … it snuck right under.”

After winning a second-period faceoff against Bonino to gain an assist on a Sami Vatanen power-play goal, Kesler believed he knew the best way to beat Vancouver goalie Eddie Lack in the shootout.

“I had him beat … I knew my move going down,” Kesler said, delivering a shot to Lack’s right that clanked the post and careened back across the crease to the delight of the Canucks (11-5), who won the shootout 1-0.

“The difference,” said Kesler, “is we hit two pipes and they had one trickle over the line.”

Beyond that, the Ducks were undermanned Sunday with defensemen Francois Beauchemin (flu) and Cam Fowler (lower-body injury) joining leading goal scorer Corey Perry (flu) on the sidelines.

Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau started rookie defenseman Josh Manson in his fourth NHL game and had to play defenseman Mat Clark, promoted from minor league Norfolk earlier Sunday, for 16 minutes, 59 seconds.

“They did pretty well for themselves … we need other guys to step it up,” Boudreau said.

Last season’s leading goal-scoring team has only produced one three-goal game in its last eight games, missing 17 shots and having 19 others blocked Sunday, while Lack stopped 28 of 29 a night after the Kings beat Vancouver, 5-1, at Staples Center.

“We’re missing guys, but they just out-worked us,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said. “We’re having chances, good looks, but for whatever reason it’s not going in the back of the net. More frustrating than people think.”

Following Kesler’s faceoff assist to Vatanen, Vancouver rallied by putting 12 consecutive second-period shots on goal and tying the score when forward Alexandre Burrows deflected a blue-line shot by defenseman Dan Hamhuis.

Bonino had the second assist, increasing his points total to 13.

Kesler has 11 points, but it was the defensive skills that won him the 2011 Selke Trophy and faceoff expertise (winning 14 of 21) that shined most Sunday.

“It was fun, exciting,” Kesler said. “I’m an intense guy, a competitor. I was trying my hardest out there.”

Andersen got his team to the shootout by surviving some precarious moments, like when Vancouver’s Jannik Hansen sailed by Clark late in the second, only to be denied in a one-on-one.

Then, ex-King Linden Vey was stopped when Andersen laid out, compiling a 34-save night.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimespugmire