Lucic, Kings cruise by Bruins

BOSTON -- Milan Lucic had a goal and an assist in his return to TD Garden and helped the Los Angeles Kings start a seven-game road trip with a 9-2 win against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
Lucic, who was traded to the Kings last June 26 after eight seasons with the Bruins, was given a standing ovation after a video tribute was shown on the scoreboard during the second timeout of the first period. Lucic took a victory lap around the rink and waved to the fans at the urging of a few of his teammates after the game.

"You think about the reaction and the excitement from the crowd and the crowd was definitely great to me here tonight," Lucic said. "I can't appreciate the fan support enough. So thanks to them for making this a special night for me individually. And thanks to my teammates for getting a big win for us to start off this road trip."
Nine players -- Jeff Carter, Marian Gaborik, Andy Andreoff, Drew Doughty, Dwight King, Trevor Lewis, Luke Schenn and Dustin Brown -- scored for the Kings (32-17-3). Goaltender Jonathan Quick made 35 saves.
Carter and Gaborik put Los Angeles ahead to stay with goals 1:23 apart late in the first period. The Kings scored four goals in the second and three in the third.
Los Angeles, which ended a three-game losing streak here dating back to their previous road win against Boston on Nov. 20, 2010, continues the trip against the New York Islanders on Thursday. The Kings were 2-4-0 in their previous six games before leaving for the road.

"It's huge. We haven't been playing well lately. And we came on this road trip talking about it a lot, how important this first game was and how important the road trip as a whole was," Doughty said. "So this is the right start, this is how we wanted it to happen and now it's on to the Islanders."
Forward Brad Marchand got his 10th goal in his past 10 games and Tyler Randell scored for Boston (28-19-6). Nine goals allowed and 57 shots against were season-highs for the Bruins; they hadn't allowed 57 shots since March 18, 1965 against the Detroit Red Wings.
After going 2-0-1 against the Buffalo Sabres and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Bruins were looking at their matchup with the Pacific Division-leading Kings as a measuring stick.
"A lot of work to be done," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. "It's one of those things where we have 29 games left and we knew we had some work to do, but we have, I guess, a lot of work to do. So hopefully we have plenty of character in here to kind of realize that we've got to be much better and work on things we saw today. And I think we all know in here what those things are. It happened a lot of times this year, where we really lacked focus, but tonight was that one, I guess it topped it all."

Marchand scored Boston's first power-play goal in five games at 5:03 of the first period for a 1-0 lead. The Kings tied it 1-1 on their own power play at 18:21 when Carter benefited from a fortuitous bounce. Jake Muzzin fed Carter posted up on the goal line to the left of the goal. Carter tried to pass to Tyler Toffoli in front, but the puck went off Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller's stick and past goaltender Tuukka Rask.
Gaborik scored with 15.2 seconds remaining to send the Kings to the first intermission with a 2-1 lead.
It took Andreoff 2:43 before he gave the Kings a 3-1 lead in the second period. From there, the Kings turned a close game into a rout. Doughty extended the lead to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 12:09. After King cashed in on a rebound at 12:42 for a 5-1 lead, the Bruins pulled Rask, who finished with 27 saves.
Lewis scored against Bruins backup goalie Jonas Gustavsson (21 saves) at 18:56 and the Kings led 6-1 after 40 minutes.

"You know what? They still had some good chances and Quick had to come up with some big saves early," Doughty said. "Eventually we started getting the bounces and that kind of just put them away and put them out of the game."
Lucic scored on a 2-on-1 at 3:41 of the third period for a 7-1 lead before Randell cut the lead to 7-2 with a goal from the high slot at 4:44.
Schenn scored a power-play goal at 13:50 of the third and Brown scored with 3:03 remaining.
The Bruins begin their longest road trip of the season (six games) against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.