8 Games Remaining: Boston Bruins Dethrone LA Kings 4-2

After the 2-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks, the Boston Bruins continued their three-game West Coast swing to L.A. to take on the Kings.

The Kings were red hot going into the evening having won the last six contests and were wanting to extend their winning ways against the defending Stanley Cup champions.  They were also looking to maintain their tenuous hold on a playoff spot as there's only three points separating five teams from seventh to 11th place in the Western Conference.  Because they were playing second place in Pacific Division, they can easily go to third place in the Western Conference by going up one point on the Dallas Stars.

The Bruins were looking to maintain their three-point lead on the Ottawa Senators in the Northeast Division and second place in the Eastern Conference.

Going into the night, the Sens handily won against the Pittsburgh Penguins so the lead went to one point for the B's in the Northeast.

No scoring in the opening period but the Kings were showing that they wanted this win by outshooting and winning the face off battle.

The second-period scoring was opened by Patrice Bergeron, who notched a short-handed goal on a turnover created by Brad Marchand.  Marchand went for the net and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick stopped his shot, but was far to the left out of position and unable to stop a charging Bergeron who popped the puck in on the open right side. That made it Bergeron's 20th goal of the season—1-0 Bruins.

Later in the frame, L.A.'s Colin Fraser got lucky as there was goaltender interference that was not called when the Kings Kyle Clifford knocked into Thomas enough to prevent him from squaring up to a shot at the net.  The goal was counted and the game was tied at one apiece.

In the final frame, Milan Lucic skated up to the net and wristed a shot that seemed to have been screened by Kings' Rob Scuderi and he rotated out of the way just as Lucic made the shot.  The puck went five-hole to give the Bruins the lead—2-1 Bruins.

And 1:19 later, Benoit Pouliot cross-passed to a halting Chris Kelly to which the puck hit his skate that angled in to give the B's the insurance goal—3-1 Bruins.

L.A. made it interesting.  With 5:14 left, Slava Voynov got his seventh of the season.  The face off was won by the Kings and the puck ended up with Voynov, who ripped a shot from the top of the face off circle to beat Thomas high and glove side.  The goal put the Kings within one and a fighting chance to get it tied up—3-2 Bruins.

With just over a minute left to play, Quick was pulled for the extra attacker and they gave it their all.  On the ensuing scrum in front of the Boston net, there was about five shots at the net and three of them reached Thomas.

Unfortunately for the Kings, none of them got in as the final save was done by some great tracking by the Boston netminder and it was kicked out.

Shortly after, Brad Marchand flipped the puck over a Kings player and it slid in the net just as time was about to expire to make it count.

Final score was 4-2 for the Bruins.

The Kings loss was the end of a six-game win streak.

The B's win placed them back at a three-point lead in the Northeast Division and maintained their second place of the Eastern Conference.

This was the Bruins captain Zdeno Chara's 1,000th NHL game.

Eight games remaining.

Next up are the Anaheim Ducks.  A team the Bruins have not won a game against in three years (sounds worse than it is...they rarely play each other) and they look to continue the winning ways to finish their West Coast swing.