Bruins beat Kings to end four-game skid
LOS ANGELES -- Charlie McAvoy and Zdeno Chara scored goals and the Boston Bruins ended a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Thursday.
Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask started for the second consecutive night and made 27 saves for the Bruins (7-7-4).
Drew Doughty scored a power-play goal and Jonathan Quick made 28 saves for the Kings (11-6-2), who lost their fourth straight game and fifth in a row at home for the first time since the opening month of the 2008-09 season.
Chara broke a 1-1 tie one second after a holding penalty ended on Kings center Anze Kopitar, his first penalty of the season.
Chara, a 40-year-old 6-foot-9 defenseman, took a slap shot from the left point, and the puck went off the blade of Kings forward Trevor Lewis and past Quick at 13:16 of the second period.
The Kings had tied the score at 4:33 of the second.
A hard hit by Kings defenseman Christian Folin on Boston forward Danton Heinen at center ice led to roughing penalties on Folin and Bruins forwards David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron, putting Los Angeles on their third power play.
Kopitar brought the puck into the Boston zone and passed to Jussi Jokinen on his left. Jokinen, playing his first game with the Kings following his trade from the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, took the puck deep and then passed it back into the high slot to Doughty, who beat Rask on his glove side with a hard wrist shot.
The Bruins had taken a 1-0 lead at 16:06 of the first period following a faceoff win by Bergeron in the Los Angeles zone. The puck went back to McAvoy just inside the blue line, and he skated unchecked through the right circle and up to crease, where he backhanded the puck high into the net for his second goal this season.
NOTES: Bruins C David Krejci returned after missing the past 11 games with a back injury. Krejci was the third-leading scorer for the Bruins last season with 54 points (23 goals, 31 assists). He did not have a shot on goal in 17:51 of ice time. ... Boston D Torey Krug sat out with an upper-body injury sustained in the third period of a 4-2 loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. ... The Kings recalled C Jonny Brodzinski from Ontario of the American Hockey League on Thursday and C Michael Amadio was sent down. ... Jokinen was the first player from Finland to play for the Kings since Lauri Tukonen played three games in the 2006-07 season and one in 2007-08.