The Boston Bruins didn’t look ready to go in the first period Friday night, and found themselves trailing the Anaheim Ducks 2-0 after 20 minutes as a result.

Fortunately for them, they woke up for the remaining 40 minutes, mounted a comeback, and wound up winning 4-2 to extend their winning streak to four games.

Here are 4 takeaways from the game:

Special teams lead the way

The Bruins weren’t exactly feeling great about their special teams entering Friday night. The power play scored three times against Utah last week, but was 0-for-14 in the Bruins’ other six games. The penalty kill, meanwhile, had allowed three goals on seven tries in the last two games, plus another goal just seconds after a penalty ended.

Both units can feel a lot better after Friday night. The power play scored on its first three opportunities against an Anaheim penalty kill that ranked fourth in the NHL, swinging a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 lead in the process. The penalty kill, meanwhile, went 4-for-4 against a Ducks power play that entered the game ranked second in the NHL at 33.3%.

The Bruins’ first power-play goal came early in the second period. With the second unit starting to change on, Frederic Brunet made a nice play to keep the puck in the zone and then beat Lukas Dostal with a seeing-eye shot through traffic for his first NHL goal.

The second came early in the third period, with David Pastrnak beating Dostal on the backhand after he and Elias Lindholm had been banging away in front. It was Pastrnak’s 423rd career goal, moving him one ahead of Brad Marchand for sole possession of fourth place on the Bruins’ career goals list. He is now just four behind Patrice Bergeron for third.

On the third power-play goal, all five players touched the puck in a nice passing sequence that ended with Pavel Zacha setting up Elias Lindholm for a tap-in. Zacha, Lindholm and Pastrnak all finished the night with two points.

The PK’s shining moment came at the end of the second and into the third, when they killed off all four minutes of an ill-advised double minor taken by Nikita Zadorov. In fact, Tanner Jeannot drew an Anaheim penalty with 40 seconds left on that kill, eventually setting up the power play that led to Pastrnak’s tying goal.

Kids continue to contribute

Another Bruin who had multiple points was James Hagens. The 19-year-old rookie assisted on Brunet’s power-play goal, and then set up fellow youngster Matt Poitras on a 2-on-1 to push Boston’s lead to 4-2 with 3:40 remaining.

The Bruins’ commitment to youth just continues to pay off night after night right now. Hagens now has six points (2g, 4a) in eight games. Poitras has three goals in five games after missing the first few games with an injury. Brunet continues to make good things happen on the back end, and now has a goal to show for it.

Fraser Minten didn’t score Friday, but he had five points in the previous two games. He also set up a quality chance in the first period with a nice dangle on the rush before sliding a pass over to JJ Peterka, who ripped a shot high.

DiPietro gets first NHL win

You have to feel good for Michael DiPietro. The 27-year-old notched his first NHL win Friday, stopping 25 of the 27 shots he faced.

It’s been a long time coming for DiPietro, who actually made his NHL debut way back in 2019 with the Vancouver Canucks. Over the next seven seasons, though, DiPietro would only make three more NHL appearances and one more start, instead spending year after year in the minors, including a stint in the ECHL after the Bruins acquired him in 2022.

DiPietro has acknowledged he had doubts about his future in the sport, but he stuck with it. Eventually he gave the Bruins no choice but to give him an NHL job after being named the AHL Goalie of the Year each of the last two seasons.

DiPietro actually looked a little shaky on Anaheim’s two first-period goals Friday, but he also made some big saves to make sure the deficit wasn’t worse. He locked in the rest of the way and ultimately finished with 1.94 goals saved above expected, according to Moneypuck, which was pretty much the difference in the game.

“It was a long road to get here,” DiPietro told NESN after the game. “I just want to thank my family, my dad, my mom, my brother, my wife, everybody who supported me through these last eight years of pro. It was a long road, but yeah, this one’s extra special.”

Zacha leaves with injury

The biggest negative for the Bruins Friday night was that Pavel Zacha left the game with nine minutes left in the third period and did not return.

Zacha took a hard hit from Anaheim defenseman Drew Helleson along the boards, and kind of got crunched awkwardly. He skated to the bench hunched over and whacked his stick on the ice as he left.

Based on postgame video posted by the Bruins, it doesn’t appear Marco Sturm was asked about Zacha’s injury. There probably won’t be an update until Sturm meets with the media around 7:40 p.m. ET Saturday night before the Bruins’ game against the Kings.

If Zacha misses any time, Sean Kuraly would draw back into the lineup and presumably slot in as fourth-line center. That could mean Matt Poitras gets an opportunity to move up in the lineup.