kingsbruins121816

BOSTON -- Tuukka Rask made 18 saves and Jimmy Hayes scored his second goal of the season to help the Boston Bruins defeat the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 at TD Garden on Sunday.
Rask has 34 career shutouts and his four this season, tie him with Devan Dubnyk of the Minnesota Wild for the NHL lead. Los Angeles' 18 shots on net were a season low.

"I think we kept them to the outside for the most part," Rask said. "There was one tip late in the third period that hit someone's shin pad and it ricocheted to my glove and that's the toughest save. But I saw all the shots."
WATCH: All Kings vs. Bruins highlights
The Bruins (17-13-3), who were playing without forward David Pastrnak (elbow), who's second in the League with 19 goals, won for the second time in their past seven games (2-3-2) and ended a three-game home losing streak.
"That's a pretty big, heavy team they have there," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "And their offense usually comes from wearing you down and winning battles and crashing the front of the net. They have some [defensemen] that can shoot the puck really well. Their game plan is very efficient for their team.
"In our end of it, we knew again they've got good size and it wouldn't be easy to get to the front of the net that much. But our guys did a good job. I know we only had that one goal but we had some opportunities around the net and it was that type of game that you needed to beat those guys. I thought we did a great job defensively, which was probably the key there this afternoon to this win."
The Kings (16-13-2) were without forwards Dustin Brown (upper-body injury) and Marian Gaborik (healthy scratch), and were shut out for the fourth time this season. They're 2-2-0 to start a stretch of nine straight road games.
Peter Budaj made 29 saves.
"We just played our fourth game in six-and-a-half days," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "We played our [butts] off again today. Guys who don't [play hard] get [scratched], guys who do [have] to play again today and they left it all out there."

Goal of the game

Bruins center Dominic Moore won a faceoff from Kings center Nic Dowd at the right dot in the Los Angeles zone and Hayes made an indirect pass off the right wall to Miller. With Hayes and Moore headed to the net front, Miller faked a slap shot, skated to the top of the right circle and let go off a wrist shot. Hayes deflected the puck past Budaj.
Hayes ended a seven-game goal drought and scored for the second time in 28 games this season after he scored 13 in 75 games last season.
"I mean if you go back and look at a lot of my goals that I've scored in my career, probably all are right around that area," Hayes said. "So ... just got to continue to find ways to get on the inside and bang them home."

Save of the game

Budaj didn't stop Hayes' tip in the first period, but at 7:44 of the second period, the Kings goaltender kept Hayes off the scoreboard despite the Boston forward's point-blank opportunity.

Highlight of the game

Rask wasn't tested much but with 3:29 remaining in the third, he was able to stop Dowd's tip of Trevor Lewis' shot from the left point to preserve the 1-0 lead.

Unsung performance of the game

Defenseman Matt Greene showed no fear in blocking Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara's slap shot at 9:25 of the second period during a penalty kill.

They said it

"I think it's a matter of with his size, he's got to win battles along the walls, he should be good in front of the net tipping pucks and finding those loose pucks. I thought tonight, not just that, but he forechecked well, he had a good stick. So hopefully it's a confidence builder for him and he gets to become a better player moving forward here." - Bruins coach Claude Julien on forward Jimmy Hayes
"Yes it was coach's decision because it's the coach's decision, you have that right. You know the locker room has players and coaches too. We have high expectations of players in terms of how they play."- Kings coach Darryl Sutter on scratching forward Marian Gaborik, who has one goal and three assists in nine games

Need to know

Brown, who's day to day, ended his consecutive games played streak at 207. ... Rask is one shutout away from tying Frank Brimsek for second place on the Bruins' all-time shutout list with 35.

What's next

Kings: At the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Bruins: Host the New York Islanders on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SN, NESN, MSG+2, NHL.TV)