Bruins again finish strong for 4-1 win over Kings

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Oct 18, 2026

Published in Hockey

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The Bruins were slow out of the gate for the second night in a row, but they were also able to duplicate their strong finish to beat the Kings in Los Angeles, 4-1, and complete the three-game sweep of California.

They have two days off before completing the four-game road trip with the most difficult challenge in the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. They will go to the Big D riding a five-game win streak.

Marat Khusnutdinov broke a 1-1 with 6:24 left in regulation, a tap-in courtesy of Matt Poitras. After a good breakout, the B’s gained the LA zone with Poitras dropping it for Morgan Geekie, who ripped a shot that goalie Anton Forsberg stopped but couldn’t control. Poitras was able to get to the top of the crease and get a stick on the rebound to knock it over to Khusnutdinov for the goal, his second of the season.

Then after there were matching penalties and LA pulled Forsberg, Elias Lindholm scored an empty-netter with 1:58 left on a soft shot from his own zone. JJ Peterka added another freebie to complete the scoring.

Jeremy Swayman was again very good, stopping 25 shots for the victory.

Coach Marco Sturm started the evening with a surprise scratch of defenseman Nikita Zadorov, due to the undisciplined double minor he took on Friday in Anaheim. They were also without Pavel Zacha, who suffered an upper body injury on Friday and is out day-to-day.

That led to the return of Jonathan Aspirot and Sean Kuraly, both of whom were scratched for the previous five games.

And Aspirot found himself in deep water right off the bat on the first shift of the game.

The Kings, who were still looking for their first win on the season and were coming off four days of rest, came out flying and put a goal up on the board just 31 seconds left. Jeremy Swayman fought off a redirected shot but couldn’t control the rebound. Adrian Kempe pounced on the rebound and passed it to Alex Laferriere, who beat Aspirot to the net for the goal.

Much like on Friday in Anaheim, the B’s were not good in the first. They were outshot 12-6 but they managed to get to the first intermission down by just a goal. They also showed some fight when Mark Kastelic took exception to a hit on linemate Tanner Jeannot and dropped the gloves with Samuel Helenius, scoring the take-down on the 6-foot-6 King forward.

The B’s got a power play late in the first most of which rolled over into the second but they could not capitalize.

But the B’s did pounce on a bad break for the Kings to tie the game soon at 2:43, soon after the PP. The puck bounced over the stick of Kings defenseman Erik Gustafsson and David Pastrnak sniffed blood. The captain took to gain possession in the neutral zone, gained the zone in the right wing and beat Forsberg with a far side wrister for Pastrnak’s fourth of the season.

The B’s got their second power play and the Kings got their first chance but neither could capitalize and the game went into the third knotted at 1-1.