LOS ANGELES — The oohs, aahs and goals were few and far between as the Boston Bruins beat the Kings, 2-1 in overtime, on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Joel Armia netted the Kings’ lone goal, and Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves.
Morgan Geekie bookended the scoring, opening it in the third period and closing it in the extra session. Jeremy Swayman stopped 31 shots.
The Kings lost for the seventh time in eight home games and dropped their third straight decision overall. They went 0 for 5 with the extra man while mustering just four shots on net.
Boston and coach Marco Sturm, a former Kings assistant, won for the ninth time in their past 12 games. Sturm also was the head coach of the German national team and the Kings’ minor league affiliate in Ontario.
“(The Kings) gave me the opportunity to be, actually, the head coach of the Boston Bruins,” Sturm said. “I will never forget that. They treated me like family and always will. That’s why it’s so nice to come back and see my guys over there. But it’s even better to leave with a win, too.”
In overtime, Geekie wanted the puck badly on one trip into the zone and got it on the next, rifling in the winner to give him four goals in his past two games and 16 on the season. That ties him for the league lead with Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.
“He worked even more this summer on his shot, on his release, and everything paid off,” Sturm said of Geekie, who broke out with 33 goals last season.
What the Kings lacked on the power play they made up for with a special-teams goal of a different variety in the final 20 minutes of regulation, scoring shorthanded with 6:55 displayed on the game clock. Trevor Moore dashed up the ice and generated a rebound for Armia to pop home. Of his five goals this season, three have come with the Kings down a man.
“Right from the first few days of training camp, he’s come in and impressed,” said Kings coach Jim Hiller of Armia, who signed as a free agent. “He deserves to play more minutes than he’s currently getting.”
Since Oct. 24, the Kings have as many goals shorthanded as they do on the power play, four on each side of the special teams coin.
No one found the back of the net on Friday until 11:59 remained in the third period. Nikita Zadorov collected the puck in the neutral zone and sent it ahead to Alexander Steeves. He hit a trailing Geekie, who loaded up a slap shot that he placed perfectly above Kuemper’s right shoulder and below the cross bar.
Riley Tufte’s sneaky second-period bid from close range after a dump-in made a little noise for the Bruins. But purposeful offense was lacking from both teams during five-on-five play on Friday until the final 90 seconds of the frame.
At one end, a sloppy line change for the Kings left Boston’s most dangerous weapon, David Pastrnak, wide open for a shot that rang the iron. The Kings’ counterattack saw Brandt Clarke activate, nearly scoring from the slot and creating a rebound chance for Corey Perry.
The early part of the second period was defined by physical play. It was a star-on-star crime when Anže Kopitar bested Pastrnak during a puck battle and dumped him onto the ice. Later in the frame, Sean Kuraly’s dangerous trip of Kopitar earned him a game misconduct.
“It’s almost [like] playing against yourself,” Kopitar said of Sturm’s Bruins. “They have a big, strong lineup, and it was a physical game.”
During the ensuing power play, Kevin Fiala banged the post with a shot that bounced off Swayman and pinballed around to the point that it took a village to clear the puck from Boston’s goal crease.
A scoreless first period was punctuated by 70 seconds of five-on-three action, with the Kings nearly converting when Andrei Kuzmenko’s seam pass found Adrian Kempe for a one-time blast. Swayman’s glove helped ensure that the Kings finished the night one for their last 19 and four for their past 48 on the power play.
“The group of five of them clearly are not getting it done,” Hiller said. “It’s something we’re thinking about, and it doesn’t look good. It has cost us games. When you get to that point, at some point, you’re going to have to make some changes.”