GAME 7: Anaheim Ducks (3-2-1, 7 PTS) at Boston Bruins (3-5-0, 6 PTS)

When: Thursday, 4 p.m. Pacific

Where: TD Garden, Boston, Mass.

Local TV: FOX-Plus KCOP-13, Victory+

Starting Goaltenders: Ducks – Petr Mrázek; Bruins – Joonas Korpisalo

Injuries: Ducks – Chris Kreider (illness), Ryan Strome (IR, upper-body), Jansen Harkins (IR, upper-body); Bruins – Hampus Lindholm (game-time decision, undisclosed), Jordan Harris (IR, undisclosed

BOSTON – With three out of a possible four points to open the road trip, the Anaheim Ducks look for back-to-back victories for the second time this season to push further above .500 on Thursday at TD Garden.

The Boston Bruins opened the season with a three-game winning streak, but the hometown B’s have now lost five straight and four of five by just one goal, including an emotional Brad Marchand homecoming against the Florida Panthers, 4-3, on Tuesday.

“I think they’re at a different place organizationally in being a contender,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said. “At the same time, it’s early on in the year. I feel we’re playing a very dangerous opponent tonight. We expect them to be pretty competitive.”

Anaheim is coming off a 5-2 win in Nashville, where the Ducks scored the first goal of the game for the first time this season–the opening segment of a Gordie Howe Hat Trick for Ross Johnston. After dropping the 1-0 and 2-1 advantages, Anaheim also earned its first multi-goal margin of victory this season with a third-period push.

Quenneville had wanted to see his team finally play with a lead this season, and he was pleased with the result.“The best response was in the third period,” Quenneville said. “We had a tough couple minutes to end the second period, and now, let’s see how we handle playing with the lead when the game’s on the line, and I thought we did a nice job. I thought we got better as the game went on, especially in our D zone area, controlled the puck in their end as well. But that’s a work in progress as we go along, but it’s a lot easier playing with being ahead than it is chasing the game like we had been.”

With Chris Kreider out due to an illness, the Ducks found trouble finishing on the power play, where Anaheim went 0-for-5 including a five-on-three in Nashville despite eight shots. Kreider has three of the Ducks five power play goals this season.

“You can look at it that I think there’s about three or four guys that love the opportunity to be on that unit,” Quenneville said. “I think there’s balance in the 10 guys that we have going out there. At the same time, there’s 11, 12, 13 guys that probably feel that when a guy’s out, there’s an opportunity there for them. And in that role, whether it’s (Mason McTavish), that’s going to be in that front presence there. There’s some options. Though, I think everybody would like to be that guy that gets a stand in front of the net as well.”

There’s still adjustments to be made early in the season on the power play, especially as the Ducks adapt to playing against teams that pressure the puck.

“It seems like teams nowadays are just like full out pressure,” Alex Killorn said, “and it’s just hard to gain the puck and make plays right as we enter the zone. But once you make one play or two plays, you kind of get a grade A chance just because they go all out. So it’s just about kind of weathering those first 15 to 20 to 30 seconds, getting pucks off the wall to make those opportunities to make that chance.”

Anaheim will look for more puck support to keep hold of the puck on the power play and weather that early pressure to set up and hope to strike once more.

“Helping each other out when we’re under pressure along the walls and stuff, trying to break the other teams pursuit,” Olen Zellweger said. Some teams are pretty aggressive, so we got to get it off the wall into the middle. Whether that’s the bumper or through the QB up top. Those type of things to calm down and really get the power play going.”

Morning Skate Lines at Boston, 10/23:

Cutter Gauthier-Leo Carlsson-Alex Killorn

Frank Vatrano-Mason McTavish-Beckett Sennecke

Nikita Nesterenko-Mikael Granlund-Troy Terry

Ross Johnston-Ryan Poehling-Sam Colangelo

Jackson LaCombe-Drew Helleson

Olen Zellweger-Jacob Trouba

Pavel Mintyukov-Radko Gudas

Scratches: Ian Moore, Chris Kreider (illness)