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Kings visit Bruins aiming to get win streak started

Jan 31, 2015 - 3:12 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Los Angeles Kings will aim for their first set of consecutive wins in over a month when they visit the Boston Bruins for Saturday's evening showdown at TD Garden.

The defending Stanley Cup champions halted a four-game slide (0-2-2) with Wednesday's close win over visiting Chicago and they hope to keep it going today in Beantown. Los Angeles, however, hasn't put together two wins in a row since notching consecutive home victories against St. Louis and Arizona on Dec. 18 and 20, respectively.

L.A., which is one point behind Calgary for the last playoff spot in the West, also will try to get off to a positive start on its five-game road trip. The Kings enter Saturday's road tilt with a poor 5-9-6 mark as the guest compared to a 16-6-6 record at home.

Los Angeles has 38 points at home this season, tying the 1980-81 and 1990-91 teams for the most points through 28 home games in franchise history.

The Kings earned their 16th home win of 2014-15 with a 4-3 triumph over the Blackhawks, who lost in seven games to L.A. in last spring's battle for the Western Conference title.

Jake Muzzin scored the game-winning goal with 3:37 to play, helping the Kings overcome several one-goal deficits to record the regulation win. L.A. trailed 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before eclipsing the Hawks.

Tyler Toffoli returned to the lineup after a six-game absence due to mononucleosis and delivered the tying goal just 2:34 before Muzzin scored the game-winner.

Jeff Carter finished with two goals and an assist for the Kings, while Jonathan Quick stopped 26-of-29 shots in the win.

"It was huge," Toffoli said. "It was the last game at home for a while, and playing against a really good team like Chicago. I think we played really well tonight."

After today's tilt, L.A. is idle until visiting Washington on Tuesday. The Kings won't play their next home test until hosting Calgary on Feb. 12.

The Bruins enter Saturday having posted a 7-1-1 record over their last nine games and Boston recently wrapped a three-game road trip with a win on Long Island.

Boston capped a 2-0-1 swing with Thursday's 5-2 rout of the New York Islanders. Milan Lucic and Reilly Smith tallied three points each, while Tuukka Rask made 43 saves to anchor the victory at Nassau Coliseum.

Lucic and Smith each had a goal and two assists for Boston. Patrice Bergeron, Kevan Miller and Torey Krug also hit the net.

Boston led 2-0 in the first period before allowing the Isles to even the score on second-period goals from John Tavares and Michael Grabner. However, Miller tallied the game-winner with just 3.4 seconds remaining in the middle stanza and the Bruins added to their cushion in the third period with goals from Krug and Lucic.

"In the third period, we found that game again that was so good for us in the first," said Bruins coach Claude Julien.

Boston will try to avoid getting swept in the two-game season series against L.A. The Kings recorded a 2-0 home win over the B's on Dec. 2 with Quick making 31 saves for the shutout.

The Bruins have lost two of three and seven of their last 10 overall encounters with the Kings, but Boston has taken the last two meetings at TD Garden.

Quick boasts a 7-3-0 career mark against Boston with a 2.04 goals against average. Rask is 1-1-0 with a 2.20 GAA in two lifetime appearance in this matchup.

The Bruins recalled goaltender Malcolm Subban from Providence of the American Hockey League on Friday and sent Rask's regular backup Niklas Svedberg to the AHL squad for conditioning.

Subban, younger brother of Montreal star defenseman P.K. Subban, was the 24th overall pick of the 2013 NHL draft. He has never played at the NHL level and this marks his first call-up to the Bruins.