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Kelly helps Boston take down LA

Mar 25, 2012 - 5:17 AM Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Chris Kelly netted the game-winning goal in the third period as the Boston Bruins skated past the Los Angeles Kings, 4-2, on Saturday at Staples Center.

Brad Marchand had a goal and an assist, while Patrice Bergeron and Milan Lucic also scored and Tim Thomas made 41 saves in the victory for the Bruins, who have won three of their last four games.

With the victory, Boston has 89 points and sits second in the Eastern Conference, three ahead of the Southeast Division-leading Florida Panthers.

"It was important for us to get a gritty road victory," Thomas said. "We still have some work to do before the playoffs. We need balanced scoring to be successful."

Colin Fraser and Slava Voynov lit the lamp and Jonathan Quick gave up three goals on 25 shots for the Kings, who had their six-game winning streak snapped.

The Kings fell to the eighth spot in the Western Conference on Saturday. They are tied with San Jose and Colorado with 86 points, but hold the tiebreaker.

Kelly netted the eventual winner 5:56 into the third frame after he got a nice feed in front from Benoit Pouliot, kicked the puck up to his stick and tapped it home to make it 3-1 in favor of Boston.

Los Angeles cut the deficit to 3-2 at 14:46 after Anze Kopitar won an offensive zone draw to the left of Thomas back to Voynov at the point. Voynov took a quick look up and wired a slap shot into the top left corner.

The Kings pulled Quick with around a minute to play and peppered the Boston goal for the majority of the final minute, but Thomas came up with some spectacular saves and Marchand found the empty net with less than a second to play to wrap up the victory for the Bruins.

After a scoreless first stanza, the Bruins opened the scoring while shorthanded 5:18 into the second frame.

Holding the puck in the defensive zone, Kings defenseman Drew Doughty fired a pass up the right wing trying to start the break-out. The pass was blocked back to Doughty, then poked away from him by a forechecking Marchand, who got a shot off from in close that was stopped by Quick, but Bergeron slammed home the rebound.

The Kings answered at 13:17 of the second period after Doughty brought the puck into the offensive zone on the right wing off the rush. Doughty threw one in front and Fraser was there to put home the rebound to make it 1-1.

Lucic gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead 4:37 into the final period after he glided over the offensive blue line to the right circle and fired a quick snap shot that just snuck through the legs of Quick.

"That's a great team over there," Kings defenseman Willie Mitchell said. "Thomas played for them. They scored one more goal than we did. We have to regroup."

Game Notes

The Bruins improved to 34-0-0 this season in games in which they have a two- goal lead at any point during the game...Thomas is now 1-1-4 all-time against the Kings, while Quick fell to 5-2-0 against Boston in his career...With an assist on Saturday, Kings forward Justin Williams has 13 points in his last 13 games...The Kings fell to 22-12-8 under head coach Darryl Sutter...Bruins captain Zdeno Chara played in his 1,000th NHL game...The Kings failed to score with four power-play chances, while the Bruins went 0-for-1 with the man advantage.