LOS ANGELES — Boston’s road swing rolled on Saturday, with Marat Khusnutdinov breaking a third-period tie and the Bruins pulling away for a 4-1 win over the still-winless Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
- Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov was a healthy scratch. He had taken two penalties during one shift late in Friday’s win against Anaheim.
- Los Angeles elevated Alex Laferriere to its top unit alongside Adrian Kempe and Artemi Panarin, looking for more offense.
- Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 shots for Boston. Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg made 24 saves.
- The Bruins improved to 7-2-0 and extended their winning streak to five games, including Friday’s 4-2 victory over the Ducks.
- Los Angeles fell to 0-4-2, leaving Peter Laviolette without a victory since taking over behind the Kings bench.
Laferriere gave Los Angeles an early lift, scoring 31 seconds into the opening period. Swayman turned aside his first tip of Brandt Clarke’s point attempt, but Kempe collected the loose puck and fed Laferriere for a finish from the edge of the crease.
The Kings’ offense did not find another answer. Los Angeles has scored only once in each of its last four outings, and Laferriere said the club needs to raise its compete level rather than wait for better luck around the net.
David Pastrnak drew Boston even at 2:43 of the second. Erik Gustafsson was unable to hold the puck inside the Kings’ blue line, allowing Pastrnak to attack with speed and snap a wrist shot home from the right circle. Pastrnak said he used his body to protect the puck, saw Clarke closing the lane, and chose to shoot.
The goal extended Pastrnak’s scoring streak to five games. He has four goals and six assists over that stretch. His 289th career even-strength goal also matched Phil Esposito for third place in Bruins history; only Brad Marchand, with 302, sits ahead of him among Boston players in that category.
The game stayed level until the final 6:24. Morgan Geekie’s shot from the left circle was stopped by Forsberg, but the goaltender could not smother the rebound. Matthew Poitras poked the puck to Khusnutdinov, who drove the crease and backhanded it into an open net for his second of the season.
Poitras said the tight game called for a goal created at the net front, and that Boston was rewarded for staying with its team game on the trip.
Elias Lindholm scored into an empty net at 18:02 of the third, and JJ Peterka added another at 19:42 to finish the scoring. Bruins coach Marco Sturm said he shuffled some personnel to get more from parts of the lineup, but credited the result to a full-team effort.
Laviolette, coaching his 1,600th NHL regular-season game, said the Kings had chances to shape the game differently earlier but lost too many puck battles as the night wore on. He became the eighth coach in League history to reach 1,600 games, joining Scotty Bowman, Paul Maurice, Lindy Ruff, Joel Quenneville, Barry Trotz, John Tortorella and Al Arbour.
