Bruins vs. Kings: Marat Khusnutdinov's Late Backhander Extends Boston's Win Streak to Five

It took a puck that Anton Forsberg could not quite smother and one quick backhand to break the tie. For the Los Angeles Kings, that is exactly how a winless October feels.

Marat Khusnutdinov scored the go-ahead goal with 6:24 left, David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist, and the Boston Bruins beat the Kings 4-1 at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday for their fifth straight win. Elias Lindholm and JJ Peterka added empty-net goals, Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves, and Los Angeles stayed winless at 0-4-2.

A Fast Start for LA, Then Boston Takes Over

The Kings came out like a team desperate to change the narrative. Just 31 seconds in, Swayman stopped Alex Laferriere's redirect of a Brandt Clarke point shot, but Adrian Kempe grabbed the rebound and fed it right back to Laferriere at the top of the crease for a 1-0 lead. Laferriere had just been moved up to the top line alongside Kempe and Artemi Panarin, and for one shift, the promotion looked genius.

The rest of the first period was mostly physical. Mark Kastelic and Samuel Helenius fought at 19:04, and Clarke took a cross-checking minor at 19:41 that bled into the second.

Boston tied it at 2:43 of the second. Pastrnak gathered a loose puck in the neutral zone after the Kings failed to keep it in, used his body to keep a defender on his back, and beat Forsberg from the right circle. It was his fourth goal of the season and, per NHL.com and the AP, his 289th career goal at even strength, tying Phil Esposito for third in Bruins history. NHL.com noted Brad Marchand sits second with 302.

"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. "It was a big goal for us."

On a night when goals were hard to come by, Pastrnak matched a franchise legend.

The Turning Point: A Greasy One at the Right Time

The game stayed tied deep into the third. Los Angeles killed two Clarke penalties earlier, and Boston killed a Frederic Brunet interference call in the second and a Hampus Lindholm hooking minor at 7:11 of the third. Neither power play got anything going.

Then came the play that decided it. Morgan Geekie's shot from the left circle squirted free when Forsberg could not trap it, Matthew Poitras swatted the rebound over to Khusnutdinov, and Khusnutdinov slipped into the crease and backhanded it home at 13:36. It was 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."

Los Angeles pulled Forsberg for an extra attacker, and Boston cashed in twice. Lindholm hit the empty net at 18:02, and Peterka added another at 19:42 with Pastrnak and Fraser Minten assisting.

Pastrnak's Streak and Swayman's Steady Night

David Pastrnak had a goal and an assist and extended his point streak to five games, with 10 points (four goals, six assists) in that run, according to NHL.com. He was also honest about how the Bruins have been starting games. "We obviously didn't have a good start, whether it was today or yesterday," he said. "The positive is we have that calmness in the room that we can still come back."

Marat Khusnutdinov had a goal and an assist in just 11:07. That is efficient work in limited minutes, and it was exactly the kind of goal Boston needed.

Jeremy Swayman made 25 saves and gave up only the early goal. After the first 31 seconds, the Kings never beat him again.

Charlie McAvoy logged 25:55, blocked four shots, finished plus-3 and assisted on Lindholm's empty-netter. Fraser Minten also played 20:30 and blocked three shots.

Alex Laferriere scored the Kings' lone goal and was blunt about what is missing. "It's easy to blame it on the bounces, but our work ethic is just not good enough right now," he said.

Stats That Matter

• Kings offense: NHL.com said Los Angeles has scored one goal in each of its past four games. That is a problem no line shuffle has solved yet.
• Power play: Both teams went 0-for-2.
• Shots: Boston 28, Los Angeles 26. This was a coin-flip game decided by one loose puck.
• Giveaways: Boston committed 24 to the Kings' 11 and still won, which says a lot about how little LA did with them.
• Penalty minutes: Los Angeles took 21, including a late 10-minute misconduct to Erik Haula.

What It Means

Boston improves to 7-2-0 with 14 points and has won five in a row, including a 4-2 win at Anaheim on Friday. The Bruins have now beaten all three California teams on a four-game trip that wraps up in Dallas on Tuesday. Coach Marco Sturm kept it simple. "In the third period, we just continued to play our game. That's all," he said.

Los Angeles falls to 0-4-2, is 0-3-0 at home, and is still looking for its first win under coach Peter Laviolette, who coached his 1,600th NHL game, according to NHL.com. He is the eighth coach in league history to reach that milestone, which is a tough night to celebrate it on. "I mean, it's a 1-1 game and they got the next one," Laviolette said. "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." The Kings visit Washington on Tuesday.

Closing Take

Boston is winning ugly, winning late and winning on the road, and that combination usually means a team believes in itself. The Kings, meanwhile, are stuck in that part of the sitcom where every plan backfires and the laugh track gets meaner. One goal a night will not get it done. Laviolette has now stood behind an NHL bench for 1,600 games. He knows a skid like this ends only one way: somebody in silver and black has to start scoring twice a night.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes and notes from NHL.com; additional reporting from the Associated Press.