BOSTON – What Jonas Hiller liked best about his second shutout of the season was the way his defense helped him out.

“If we play like that every single game, with guys out there blocking shots, we’ve got a good chance to win,” the Anaheim goalie said Monday night after stopping 45 shots to lead the Ducks to a 3-0 victory over the Boston Bruins.

Rookie Brandon McMillan had his first career multipoint game to help Anaheim snap a two-game skid on a season-high, seven-game trip. Lubomir Visnovsky and Corey Perry also scored and Teemu Selanne had two assists for the Ducks, who play in Buffalo today.

It was the eighth shutout of Hiller’s career.

“Jonas was in a zone and really stole the show,” Ducks forward Bobby Ryan said.

Tim Thomas made 22 saves for Boston but fell to 15-4-3 on the season. Three of his four regulation losses have come when the Bruins failed to score.

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“Our goalies have been battling back there for us every night,” Boston forward Marc Savard said. “But we’ve got to give them some support.”

With the season not even halfway over, Coach Claude Julien noted the Bruins could have tied Northeast Division-leading Montreal with a victory and moved into third place in the Eastern Conference. Instead, Boston is in the eighth spot for a playoff race that won’t start in earnest for a couple of months.

“When you’ve got a chance to move up five spots, it’s unacceptable,” Julien said. “This game’s about emotion. I think that’s the thing that really irked me. We should have been excited to play this game and move up five.”

McMillan doubled his career totals with one goal and one assist. He gave the Ducks the lead when he slammed home the rebound of Luca Sbisa’s shot less than 6 minutes into the game.

Anaheim made it 2-0 in the second when Visnovsky put a rebound past Thomas.

 


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