LOS ANGELES –– Saturday night had been earmarked to celebrate Kings captain Anze Kopitar and his record-setting tenure with the organization, but the Boston Bruins crashed the party and walked out of Crypto.com Arena with a 4-2 victory.

On the same evening that Kopitar played in his franchise-record 1,297th game, rookie Alex Laferriere scored his first NHL goal before Carl Grundstrom added an academic power-play goal. That effort bridged generations but did not exactly illuminate the scoreboard despite the Kings out-shooting and out-chancing Boston. Cam Talbot stopped 21 shots in defeat.

It was Boston’s captain, Brad Marchand, stealing the show by producing two goals and an assist, matching the three-point outing of David Pastrnak (goal and two assists). Morgan Geekie also scored a goal and former Kings defenseman Derek Forbort contributed two assists. Backup Jeremy Swayman was resplendent in goal with 32 saves.

Boston was mostly content to clog up the neutral zone and slow the pace in the third period, when both teams barely cracked double digits in combined shots on net, though one was a roof-bound snipe from Marchand that tolled the Kings’ bell with just over two minutes to play. Grundstrom tipped in Matt Roy’s shot to make the final result a bit more respectable with 72 seconds left.

Early gains gave way to lingering pains in the second period, as the Kings killed off a double-minor penalty and tied the game before surrendering a pair of goals that left them with an uphill climb at the second intermission.

Less than a minute into the frame, an adroit defensive play garnered Phillip Danault a shorthanded breakaway. Though his shot beat the theretofore impregnable Swayman, the post and crossbar conspired against Danault.

The Kings solved Swayman and found their equalizer 6:28 into the stanza when Laferriere hit the blue line with speed, received a pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois and zoomed ahead for a goal from a wrist shot as he fell to one knee.

Laferriere attended Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. His father Rob grew up in New Bedford, Mass. before playing most of his college career for Boston College, tethering their fandom to the Boston sports franchises, including the Bruins, even though the younger Laferriere grew up in New Jersey.

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That excitement quickly transferred to two current Boston residents as the Bruins struck twice in 48 seconds. With 5:15 remaining, Geekie capped off a shift with heavy sustained pressure by popping a Forbort-generated rebound past Talbot. The Kings then gave up their second goal Saturday following a defensive-zone faceoff loss when Marchand engaged in a bit of captain-on-captain crime: his shot hit Kopitar and trickled through Talbot’s legs.

The Kings turned in a high-event first period that pushed Swayman to the brink at times. They hit the net three times in as many seconds at one point and Swayman also denied Pierre-Luc Dubois and Adrian Kempe in instantaneous succession not once but twice.

Additionally, the Kings enjoyed nearly a minute of ultimately futile five-on-three time, whereas Boston needed just 13 seconds of man-advantage action to take the lead.

After Mikey Anderson was whistled for interference, the Bruins won the draw and Pastrnak opened the scoring. Marchand’s pass across the tops of the circles found Pastrnak, who changed his angle and fired a shot that was deflected by Vladislav Gavrikov before knuckling past Talbot.