Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak scored their 26th goals of the season, and the Boston Bruins improved to 5-1-0 under interim coach Bruce Cassidy with a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night.
Rookie defenseman, Kevin Gravel, scored the first NHL goal of his career to tie the game at 1-1 in the first period, but Pastrnak shot a knuckler through the five-hole of Peter Budaj in the second period as he broke his stick on the play.
"It feels good obviously, it was a long time coming," Gravel said of his first ever NHL goal. "Good play by Marty [Alec Martinez] to get the puck going to the net, Kemps [Adrian Kempe] made a great play to find the back door there, and I had nothing but net to shoot at so I basically just tapped it in."
.@pastrnak96's PPG, broken stick and all �� pic.twitter.com/xgTmS2WAwr — Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 24, 2017
Anton Khudobin made 27 saves in his second start since Christmas for the Bruins, who nursed an early lead to their first win in Los Angeles since March 24, 2012.
Pastrnak's go-ahead goal was his seventh power-play goal of the season. Dominic Moore ended his 26-game goal drought with an empty-net score, and David Krejci added another empty-netter with 7.2 seconds left.
Sports
Get today's sports news out of Los Angeles. Here's the latest on the Dodgers, Lakers, Angels, Kings, Galaxy, LAFC, USC, UCLA and more LA teams.
The victory was the first for the Bruins in Los Angeles since March 24, 2012.
The Kings have now lost six of eight overall and four of five since their bye week. With just 22 games left to play, the Kings are now four points behind the Calgary Flames for the second and final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference.
"We can't chase the lead," said L.A. head coach Darryl Sutter. "The early goal is just a constant theme, chase the lead. We need to put some production on the top end of our lineup to overcome that."
Up Next:
The Kings host the rival Ducks on Saturday night at Staples Center.
