The Boston Bruins may have wanted to put up a fight with the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday night, but the hollowed-out roster is just not equipped to do that against a team that may yet prove to be a Stanley Cup contender.

Jeremy Swayman, thwarted in his attempt to get in a goalie fight in the second period, allowed seven goals on 23 shots and the Kings routed the B’s, 7-2, at Crypto.com Arena. It was the fifth straight time Swayman has allowed four or more goals in a start. Not every goal was his fault, but there were a couple that he could have had — and that’s a couple too many for the Bruins in their current state.

Meanwhile, the B’s were held to 20 or fewer shots for the fourth time in five games, managing just 13 shots on Sunday, including just one in the third period. It was their sixth straight loss.

On a positive note, the B’s are finding a little bit of traction in their quest for a better playoff spot as the Pittsburgh Penguins pulled into a points tie with the B’s with their shootout loss in Florida on Sunday. And on the five-game road trip that is ending any pretense of a playoff chase for the B’s, they next play on Wednesday against the Anaheim Ducks, who trail them by a points with two games in hand.

On Sunday, the B’s scored a goal on the first shift of the game but the Kings eventually found their game and took a lead into the first intermission.

The top three Bruin lines were blenderized. The first line of Morgan Geekie, Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak had been the only scoring threat the B’s could offer for a while, so interim coach Joe Sacco broke it up, giving rookie Fabian Lysell a shot to play with Zacha and Geekie while Pastnak began the game with Casey Mittelstadt and Marat Khusnutdinov.

But it was the third line that struck just 19 seconds into the game. Elias Lindholm’s pass intended for Vinni Lettieri at the Los Angeles blue line was thwarted but Cole Koepke picked up the loose puck. While Anze Kopitar left Lindholm all alone in front of the net, Koepke delivered Lindolm the puck and he beat goalie Darcy Kuemper with a nifty forehand-backhand move.

The lead didn’t last long.

At 2:43, Kopitar addressed his rare defensive mistake. Taking a feed from Adrian Kempe at the Boston blue line, Kopitar got behind Henri Jokiharju and tucked a backhander by Swayman.

Slowly but surely, the Kings took over the game. After several near misses on the backdoor plays, they connected on one with 29 seconds left in the period on a play that should have never been completed. With Andrew Peeke and Lindholm down low on the left side and Mason Lohrei and Geekie low on the right side, Philip Danault was allowed to step out on the left and feed a backhand pass to Warren Foegele for a far too-easy tap-in.

That was not the way to finish off a period.

They started the second period better, however, tying the game at 2:07. After the B’s spent some decent offensive zone time, it looked like the Kings were ready to break out. Lysell offered some resistance at the blue line and forced the puck to the inside. Zacha picked it off the blue line and found Geekie all alone down low in the slot and Geekie ripped his 25th of the year past Kuemper’s blocker.

But the Kings regained the lead at 8:46 on a controversial sequence. It had appeared that Parker Wotherspoon had gained the red line on his follow-through on a dump-in, but he was called for icing, immediately raising the ire of Sacco. His mood would get worse. Quinton Byfield won the ensuing faceoff back to Mikey Anderson at the left point. The rebound of Anderson’s shot went right to Drew Doughty on the right side and he blasted a one-timer over Swayman’s shoulder for the 3-2 Los Angeles lead.

Then tempers really rose. On a rambunctious shift from Khusnutdinov, the Bruin was checked from behind by Tanner Jeannot into Kuemper, who grabbed the young Russian and ripped his helmet off. Seeing that, Swayman came out to center ice, waved his stick to get Kuemper’s attention and dropped his glove, blocker and mask. Kuemper skated out to center, dropping his glove and blocker but never got his mask off before the officials got in between the two netminders to deny the goalie fight. All that came out of it was four matching minors.

That seemed to energize the B’s, at least for a while. But just when it looked like the B’s would push back, the Kings doubled their lead at 17:38 when Andrei Kuzmenko beat Swayman, deep in his net, on a tough-angle shot.

If that wasn’t a killer goal, Byfield delivered it at 4:05 into the third when he beat Swayman on a shortside wrister. Jeannot added another one on a tip to turn it into a blowout.

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