Overtime Relief: Geekie's Double Ends Bruins' Skid, Keeps Kings Searching

 

Graphic by Genevive Oliver

After two periods of tense, scoreless hockey, the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings delivered a sudden explosion of action, culminating in an exhilarating overtime finish. The Bruins ultimately prevailed, defeating the Kings 2-1 after forward Morgan Geekie scored his 16th goal of the season at 2:27 of the extra frame. Geekie, who also notched the game’s opening goal in the third period (8:01), single-handedly drove the offense needed to snap Boston's challenging two-game losing streak. For the Los Angeles Kings, Joel Armia provided a moment of sheer late-game resilience, tying the score at 13:03 of the third period to force overtime and secure a vital point, despite the tough outcome that extended their overall losing streak to three games.

Boston Bruins Lineup:

Blumel - Zacha - Pastrnak

Steeves - Khusnutdinov - Geekie

Jeannot - Minten - Kastelic

Tufte - Kuraly - Eyssimont

Zadorov - Aspirot

Lindholm - Jokiharju

Lohrei - Peeke

Swayman

Korpisalo

Los Angeles Kings Lineup:

Fiala - Byfield - Kempe

Moore - Kopitar - Kuzmenko

Foegele - Danault - Laferriere

Armia - Turcotte - Perry

Anderson - Edmundson

Dumoulin - Clarke

Moverare - Ceci

Kuemper

Forsberg

After two scoreless periods of hockey at the Crypto.com Arena, Morgan Geekie opened the scoring to put the Bruins in front 1-0 at 11:59 of the third frame. He took advantage of the line change, skating into a pass from Alex Steeves, who had received a pass from Nikita Zadorov. Up high, Geekie scored with a long one-timer, beating Darcy Kuemper over his blocker. Joel Armia answered for the Kings, tying it up 1-1 at 6:57 of the third, scoring on the rebound when he knocked it into the open net with his backhand after a shot by Trevor Moore on a 2-on-1 was stopped by Jeremy Swayman.

The Bruins and Kings needed extra time to wrap it up, so they went into overtime, where Geekie scored his second of the night and his 16th of the season. He roofed a wrister from the top of the right circle over Kuemper's blocker after David Pastrnak grabbed the puck when it was fired into center ice, and Geekie skated up through the neutral zone. Pastrnak handed it over to him near the blue line before Geekie put it home for the 2-1 final.

Jeremy Swayman on mindset and what Geekie means to the Bruins: "Finishing the game the right way and testing them, and I thought that goal was big for us, momentum-wise. ...I thought just mindset was getting the lead and maintaining it, and not changing a thing. Just finish a well-structured game." - "So happy for that guy. I mean, he works his tail off, and to see him getting results day in and day out's no surprise, but it's awesome to see. And the work he puts in, how seriously he takes his game; it's really good to see guys get success that way. So, we're really happy for him and know that he's going to keep doing his thing."

Morgan Geekie on his overtime goal and confidence: "Honestly, I didn't even see it go in. I just tried to make a good shot, and then I heard the guys... David just made a great pass. He made a good play to get it all the way up there, and I was just able to put a good shot on net, and it went in." - "I think it kind of built off of last year, too. Just one of those things where you can't get too high or too low. Obviously, it's a little easier when you're winning games, and it's a little bit more fun and easier to come to the rink for everybody. So, I think for me, personally, just try to be in a good mood all the time."

Notes:

- With his 16th goal of the season, Morgan Geekie is tied with Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL lead of the season. He is also tied with Cole Caufield (12) for the most even-strength goals.

- With his second straight shorthanded goal, Joel Armia joins both Steve Duchesne and Bernie Nicholls as the third player in Kings history to score a shorthanded goal on consecutive days.

- Nikita Zadorov collected a pair of assists.

- Jeremy Swayman made a total of 31 saves for Boston, and Darcy Kuemper made a total of 24 saves for Los Angeles.

- The Bruins are 13-10-0. They have lost two straight and three of their previous four.

- The Kings are 10-6-6, and are 0-1-2 in their past three games.