LOS ANGELES – Milan Lucic and Chris Kelly scored less than 1 1/2 minutes apart early in the third period to break open a tie game, Patrice Bergeron scored a short-handed goal and Tim Thomas made 41 saves Saturday night, leading the Boston Bruins to a 4-2 victory against the Los Angeles Kings.

The defending Stanley Cup champions ended a four-game road losing streak and also snapped a six-game winning streak by the Kings, who fell out of first place in the Pacific Division with Dallas’ victory over Calgary. Colin Fraser and Slava Voynov scored for Los Angeles, and Jonathan Quick stopped 22 shots.

The Northeast Division-leading Bruins are second in the Eastern Conference, 12 points behind the New York Rangers with eight games left.

The Bruins, who have a 36-goal advantage over their opponents in the third period, broke a 1-all tie when David Krejci carried the puck into the Kings’ zone and left a drop pass for Lucic, who beat Quick between the pads with a wrist shot from the middle of the right circle at 4:37 of the period for his 24th goal.

Kelly added his 19th at 5:56. Brian Rolston carried the puck from his zone into the Kings’ end and passed to Benoit Pouliot, whose cross-ice feed to Kelly went in off his left skate. The officials let the goal stand after a brief replay viewing.

Voynov cut it to 3-2 at 14:46 of the third with his seventh goal, a line wrist shot that beat Thomas high to the glove side. But Brad Marchand scored into an empty net in the final second.

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The Kings had allowed only one short-handed goal all season until Bergeron opened the scoring at 5:18 of the second period while Rolston was off for holding Dustin Brown. Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty turned the puck over to Marchand and Quick made a toe save on Marchand’s 15-foot backhander, but was out of position when Bergeron slammed the rebound into a wide-open net for his 20th goal.

Fraser tied it with his second goal of the season, getting a cross-ice pass from Doughty in the slot and beating Thomas to the stick side with a 25-foot wrist shot.

SENATORS 8, PENGUINS 4: Daniel Alfredsson had two goals and two assists as Ottawa dealt visiting Pittsburgh its first regulation loss in 15 games.

Sidney Crosby scored his first goal in six games since making his second comeback of the season, but it wasn’t enough as Pittsburgh fell to 13-1-1 since a 6-2 loss in Buffalo on Feb. 19.

FLYERS 4, CANADIENS 1: Danny Briere scored a pair of goals, Ilya Bryzgalov made 23 saves and host Philadelphia clinched a playoff berth.

Three of Philadelphia’s four goals came on the power play, upping the Flyers’ league-leading total to 61.

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STARS 4, FLAMES 1: Jamie Benn scored twice, Kari Lehtonen made 35 saves, and Dallas beat visiting Calgary in a matchup of Western Conference playoff contenders.

Michael Ryder also scored for the Stars, who improved to 87 points and are in the middle of a six-team scramble along with the Flames (83 points) for one of the final two playoff spots.

RANGERS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3: Ryan Callahan’s shootout goal gave New York a victory at Toronto, lifting the Rangers into a tie atop the NHL standings.

Brad Richards also scored for New York in the shootout. Tim Connolly had Toronto’s lone goal in the tiebreaker.

Marian Gaborik, with two goals, and Brandon Dubinsky scored in regulation for New York (47-21-7). Henrik Lundqvist made 22 stops for the Rangers, and Richards added two assists.

The Rangers, who lead Pittsburgh by three points in the Eastern Conference, are tied with Western-leading St. Louis with 101 points. The Rangers have one more win than the Blues.

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SABRES 3, WILD 1: Rookie Marcus Foligno scored a power-play goal 1:45 into the third period, and Buffalo continued its late-season surge into playoff contention with a win at home.

RED WINGS 5, HURRICANES 4: Drew Miller scored with 8:25 left and Detroit rallied from three goals down to beat visiting Carolina, snapping a six-game losing streak.

PREDATORS 3, JETS 1: Pekka Rinne made 24 saves to lead Nashville over visiting Winnipeg.

Matt Halischuk, Gabriel Bourque and Shea Weber scored for Nashville, which snapped a two-game losing streak.

LIGHTNING 4, ISLANDERS 3: Steven Stamkos scored twice to tie the team record with 52 goals this season as Tampa Bay won at home.

Stamkos gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead with his second of the night and tied Vincent Lecavalier’s club record 1:46 into the second.

NOTES

The Stars paid tribute to former defenseman Karlis Skrastins before Saturday’s game. Skrastins was a member of the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team when the Latvian native died in a plane crash in Russia last September en route to a Kontinental League game in Minsk. His widow, Zane, and three daughters participated in the ceremony. The Stars have been wearing No. 37 patches on their uniforms this season in honor of Skrastins … Montreal Canadiens great Jean Beliveau was released from the hospital after suffering a stroke late last month. The 80-year-old Hall of Famer was transferred to a rehabilitation center.


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