The win put a halt to the Bruins’ two-game losing streak and was only their second victory in five games. Now 13-10-0, they own a .565 points percentage, slotting them 13th overall in the Eastern Conference, a ranking that would leave them out of the playoff picture come April.

Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves and picked up his sixth win in his last seven starts,

“Character win,” Swayman told 98.5 The Sports Hub soon after improving his record to 9-5-0. “I’m proud of our guys and their never-give-up mentality. I owe two points to the guys.”

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Geekie’s first goal came on a booming one-time slapper off a feed from Alex Steeves at 8:01 of the third period, the shot eluding goalie Darcy Kuemper on the blocker side.

Just over five minutes after Geekie scored the night’s first goal, the Kings evened it on a Joel Armia shorthanded strike at 13:03. Attacking the Boston net twon-on-one with Armia, Trevor Moore landed a first attempt on Jeremy Swayman and Armia, the ex-Habs winger, cashed in on the rebound.

Moore landed a first attempt on Swayman. Armia, the ex-Habs winger, cashed in on the rebound.

The Bruins remained without No. 1 defenseman Charlie McAvoy and three of their top forwards, including No. 1 pivot Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt and ex-Kings winger Viktor Arvidsson.

The loss of personnel has been taking its toll, particularly in a season with so little rest-and-recovery built into the schedule.

The Bruins on Sunday night in San Jose, stop No. 3 of the four-game trip, will play their 24th game in 47 days. It would be an exhausting pace even for a lineup with its personnel fully intact. With some of their top players forced to the sidelines, it has become a grueling grind.

The two sides skated to a scoreless tie in the opening 40:00, with the Kings squeezing out a slight (17-16) shot advantage over the first two periods. LA finished with a 32-26 shot advantage. The Bruins this season have been a flawless 5-0 in overtime.

Swayman had won five consecutive starts before taking the loss in Monday’s 3-1 loss to Carolina at the Garden. He stopped 29 of 32 shots, the Hurricanes taking a 3-0 lead early in the third (goal by ex-Bruin Taylor Hall) before recent callup Riley Tufte banged one home for the Bruins on the power play.

The Bruins came up short in the trip opener Wednesday night in Anaheim, the first stop of the four-game journey. They did manage two Geekie power-play goals in the 4-3 loss to the Ducks. It was the sixth game in a row the Bruins scored on the advantage, a stretch in which they went 9 for 20 when a man up, an eye-popping 45 percent success rate.

The next morning, the Bruins ranked fourth overall in the league with their power play clicking at 27.4 percent — a dramatic turnaround from early in the season. To wit: through the first 10 games, their power play ranked 19th in the league, connecting at a 19.4 percent success rate.

The streak ended in LA, the Kings snuffing out their two times playing with the advantage.

The nine power-play goals across the six games were scored by Geekie (2), David Pastrnak (2), Mikey Eyssimont, Hampus Lindholm, Viktor Arvidsson, and Tufte.

The stop in LA was a homecoming for first-year Bruins coach Marco Sturm. Now 47, he spent seven years coaching in the Kings organization following a stint as the German national team coach.

Ex-Bruins winger Glen Murray, a long time executive in the Kings front office, who heavily lobbied in favor of Sturm, his ex-teammate in Boston, joining the Kings as a rookie NHL coach in the summer of 2018. Sturm spent four years as a Kings assistant coach and then took over the club’s AHL in Ontario, Calif., where he coached for three seasons before general manager Don Sweeney named him the new coach of the Black and Gold in June.

“Weird to be on the other side,” Sturm said following the morning workout. The Kings, he added, felt “like family to me.”

For the seven years Sturm was in California, his wife and two children remained in Florida, allowing the kids to remain in school there and remain close to their friends.

Following their scheduled workout Saturday at the Kings’ practice facility, the Bruins will charter up to San Jose ahead of Sunday’s matchup (8:08 p.m.) with the Sharks. Monday is a travel day to Long Island, followed by a practice Tuesday morning Elmont, N.Y., prior facing the Islanders on Wednesday night in the trip finale.

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com.