Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves, and Nikita Zadorov had two assists for the Bruins (13-10-0), who had lost two straight and three of their previous four.

The win had an added significance for Boston coach Marco Sturm, who spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Kings from 2018-22 and was the head coach of their American Hockey League affiliate in Ontario, California, from 2022-2025.

“They gave me the opportunity to be, actually, the head coach of the Boston Bruins, and I will never forget that,” said Sturm, who met with Kings coach Jim Hiller, other members of the Kings coaching and support staff, and players prior to the game. “They treat me like family, always well, and that’s why it’s so nice to come back and also see my guys over there. But it’s even better to leave with the win, too.”

Joel Armia scored a short-handed goal for the second straight game, and Kuemper made 24 saves for the Kings (10-6-6), who were coming off a 4-3 shootout loss at the San Jose Sharks on Thursday and are 0-1-2 in their past three games.

Los Angeles is 1-4-3 on home ice.

“We want to win at home. We’ve been good here historically, so it’s frustrating,” Kings forward Trevor Moore said. “It’s something we got to figure out.”

Geekie put the Bruins up 1-0 at 8:01 of the third period. Taking advantage of a line change, Geekie skated into a pass by Alex Steeves and scored with a long one-timer that beat Kuemper over his blocker.

“He’s so dangerous, like that shoot first mentality he had, and he should be with the shot he has,” Boston defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. “Putting the puck in the net in this League, it’s not easy, so it’s nice to have a guy on our team like that.”

Geekie has scored 12 even-strength goals, which is tied with Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield for the most in the NHL.

“He worked even more this summer on his shot and on his release,” Sturm said. “Everything pays off, so it’s nice to see that hard work gets rewarded.”

Armia tied it 1-1 at 13:03. Moore’s shot on a 2-on-1 was stopped by Swayman, but Armia got to the rebound and knocked it into the open net with his backhand.

“The penalty kill has been very good lately, we’ve shut teams down, but that’s just a really big moment,” Hiller said. “[Armia] saw the play develop, and he jumped up to join [Moore].”