Bruins break tie in third, keep Kings winless

LOS ANGELES -- Marat Khusnutdinov scored the go-ahead goal with 6:24 remaining in the third period, and the Boston Bruins kept the Los Angeles Kings winless with a 4-1 victory at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

Anton Forsberg failed to cover up the puck after saving Morgan Geekie's shot from the left circle, allowing Matthew Poitras to knock it to Khusnutdinov, who got to the paint to backhanded it into the open net for his second goal of the season.

“Just trying to go to the net,” Poitras said. “The game was pretty tight out there. It was going to take a greasy one, so, yeah, just go to the net and try and get a stick on it. And fortunate it went to Marat.”

David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to five games, Elias Lindholm and JJ Peterka added empty-net goals, and Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves for the Bruins (7-2-0), who have won five in a row, including 4-2 at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.

“We’re confident in our team game, and kind of sticking with that and getting rewarded with it,” Poitras said. “So, yeah, feels good to get another win on this road trip."

Alex Laferriere scored the lone goal, and Forsberg made 24 saves for the Kings (0-4-2), who are still looking for their first win under coach Peter Laviolette.

“I mean, it’s a 1-1 game and they got the next one,” Laviolette said. “For me, I would have liked to have seen it go a little bit more in a different direction earlier in the game when we had more chances. I thought in the second half of the game that their work was better than ours when it came for pucks and battles and speed.”​

Laferriere put the Kings up 1-0 just 31 seconds into the first period. His initial redirection of Brandt Clarke's point shot was stopped by Swayman, but Adrian Kempe got the rebound and passed back to Laferriere, who tapped it in from the top of the crease.

Los Angeles had moved Laferriere up to the first line with Kempe and Artemi Panarin in an effort to boost its struggling offense, which has scored one goal in each of the past four games.

“It’s easy to blame it on the bounces, but our work ethic is just not good enough right now,” Laferriere said. “But when we start working harder we’re going to get those bounces, and I think that’s just what we got to do to turn it around.”

Pastrnak tied it up 1-1 at 2:43 of the second period. He buried a wrist shot from the right circle off the rush after Erik Gustafsson couldn’t keep the puck in the offensive zone for the Kings.

“I had good momentum going forward and I was able to get my body in front of him, shield the puck away from him,” Pastrnak said. “So, yeah, was fortunate enough, and then felt like I was being closed off by the other D (Clarke), so just decided to shoot it. It was a big goal for us.”

Pastrnak has 10 points (four goals, six assists) during his five-game streak.

“We obviously didn’t have a good start, whether it was today or yesterday,” Pastrnak said. “The positive is we have that calmness in the room that we can still come back.”

After Khusnutdinov put the Bruins in front, Lindholm (18:02) and Peterka (19:42) sealed the 4-1 final.

“In the third period, we just continued to play our game. That’s all,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said. “Yes, I mixed up a little bit just to get a little bit more out of some of the guys and lines, but it was just a great, great team effort today.”  

NOTES: Pastrnak has 289 career goals at even strength, tying Phil Esposito for third in Bruins history. Brad Marchand is second with 302. ... It was Laviolette’s 1,600th NHL game as a head coach. He is the eighth coach in League history to reach the milestone, joining Scotty Bowman (2,141), Paul Maurice (2,021), Lindy Ruff (1,947), Joel Quenneville (1,857), Barry Trotz (1,812), John Tortorella (1,628) and Al Arbour (1,607). … Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov was scratched after being assessed two penalties on the same shift late in the second period against the Ducks.