BOSTON — Boston Bruins left winger Brad Marchand, interviewed on the TD Garden big screen between the second and third periods of Saturday night’s game, said the battle with the Los Angeles Kings was “a great game to be part of.”
It was also a great game to watch.
When Marchand spoke, he already had scored one goal, and he added an empty-netter as the Bruins, a team in trouble at the end of December, finished off a successful January with an entertaining 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
Left winger Chris Kelly tipped home a shot by Carl Soderberg past goaltender Jonathan Quick with 5:27 left for the winner, the goal coming just 93 seconds after the Kings had tied the game on a goal by center Jordan Nolan.
Kelly’s goal, his sixth of the season, was not initially called a goal but needed only a short review to be counted as the winner.
Marchand — who had seven shots on goal, not counting one he put into the net just after the end of the first period — then knocked a pass out of mid-air and poked the puck from his own side of the red line, trickling it all the way down the ice and into the unguarded net for his 15th goal of the season.
“They don’t give up a whole lot, and everything we got we had to earn,” Marchand said. “They played a very hard game. You can see why they won (the Stanley Cup) a couple times the last few years — definitely a really good game for us.”
Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask stopped 30 shots, including one breakaway, but was beaten by Nolan on a shot that glanced off the stick of defenseman Dougie Hamilton and hit the top corner of the net, tying the game in the third period. Rask then came up big in the final minutes.
The win, on the eve of the Super Bowl with many TD Garden fans wearing New England Patriots gear, lifted the Bruins, the Eastern Conference wild card leaders, to 8-1-3 in January.
“We knew that would be a tough game,” Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said. “They played really hard all over the ice. I thought it was a really tight game, a lot of battles.
“I think the fans really enjoyed it too. It started really physical, you know; it was just really two hard-working teams battling for the win.”
The struggling Kings, the defending champions, finished the month just 3-4-4 and are on the outside looking in at the playoff picture in the Western Conference.
They are 5-10-6 on the road.
“One win tonight wouldn’t have changed a whole lot as far as that road record goes,” Quick said. “So, it’s just trying to get two points every time you go out.”
Rask stopped rookie center Nick Shore on a breakaway in the second period and caught a break when center Tyler Toffoli hit the post in the third.
Marchand, who had a goal waved off after the first-period buzzer, beat Quick with 2:40 left in the second period.
Quick, the former University of Massachusetts goaltender, fell to 1-4-3 in his last eight games.
“I thought we played really well,” Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter said. “We didn’t get many opportunities — either team — against each other. We probably had some real high what we call Grade A chances, and you gotta bury one of them — and we weren’t able to.”
NOTES: The Bruins showed their support for the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl by wearing the football team’s motto, “Do Your Job” winter hats for pregame warmup. A Patriots video shown during the game whipped the crowd into a frenzy. … The champion Kings will visit the White House on Monday and take on the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. … G Malcolm Subban, the Bruins’ first-round pick in the 2012 draft and the younger brother of Montreal Canadiens D P.K. Subban, dressed (and backed up) for his first NHL game, with Niklas Svedberg sent to Providence for conditioning. The younger Subban was the AHL player of the week last week and is 9-10-2 with a 2.31 goals-against average in the minors. … Bruins G Tuukka Rask played 11 of his team’s 12 January games. … The Bruins visit the New York Rangers on Wednesday.