Khusnutdinov’s Third Period Winner Complete Golden State Sweep for Boston

The Boston Bruins (7-2-0) extended their win streak to five and capped off a three-for-three stretch in the Golden State, using three third period goals to deny the Los Angeles Kings (0-4-2) 4-1 on Saturday night.

Boston’s quest for a fifth straight victory got off to a rocky start as Los Angeles opened the scoring just 31 seconds into the opening period. Jeremy Swayman denied the initial opportunity, pushing aside Alex Laferriere’s deflection of Brandt Clarke’s shot from the right side of the blue line. Adrian Kempe crashed in and found the loose puck, with Laferriere’s second deflection in a matter of seconds finding the back of the net to give the Kings the early edge 1-0.

The Kings continued to dominate the opening frame, outshooting the Bruins 12-6 through the first twenty minutes. Despite the sustained offensive zone time throughout the period, Los Angeles was unable to build on the early goal as the sides hit the locker room with just one goal separating them. 

Early in the middle frame, Joel Armia misfired a pass back towards Erik Gustafsson at the blueline. With the puck free in the neutral zone, David Pastrnak out-skated Gustafsson and entered the zone on the right side. Just above the face-off dot to the left of Anton Forsberg, Pastrnak snapped a shot by the netminder to even the score at one. The goal was Pastrnak’s fourth of the season and second in two nights after moving into fourth place on the Bruins' franchise goal scoring list with his goal Friday night in Anaheim. 

The remainder of the period was a mirror of the first, with the Bruins outshooting the Kings by a similar margin, 12-7, to the count they were outshot by in the first period. Both sides failed to convert on a power play opportunity in the period, part of a combined 0-7 effort by the two power play units.

With just over six minutes remaining in the third period, both sides continued to search for a third period winner to break the 1-1 deadlock. Jonathan Aspirot started the breakout from behind Swayman’s cage with a pass towards the blue line for Morgan Geekie, who sent the puck to Matthew Poitras in the neutral zone. Poitras returned it to Geekie in the offensive zone, letting him fire a shot towards the net. Forsberg denied the initial attempt but couldn’t secure the loose push, giving the opportunity for Marat Khusnutdinov to put home the loose put for his second goal of the season and the Bruins’ second goal of the night. 

Los Angeles had one final opportunity to find an equalizer and extend the contest after Will Borgen and Joel Armia were sent to the box with matching minor penalties, setting up a four-on-four opportunity.

Kings head coach Peter Laviolette opted to pull his goaltender to give his team a five-on-four edge but the chance lasted just 53 seconds before Elias Lindholm potted an empty netter. JJ Peterka would put the finishing touches on the 4-1 victory with another empty netter with eighteen seconds on the clock. 

Next up, the Bruins head to Dallas, Texas, to take on the Dallas Stars (4-3-1) on Tuesday night. Puck drop is set for 8 p.m. ET on NESN.