Kings remain hot, bury Islanders with 4-goal 2nd period

LOS ANGELES — The Kings inundated the New York Islanders with a four-goal second period in a game they ultimately won, 5-2, on Tuesday night at Crypto.Com Arena to remain among the Pacific Division’s contenders and the NHL’s hottest teams.

First-place Vegas won its fourth consecutive game Tuesday, maintaining a three-point edge on the Kings, and Edmonton also prevailed to remain five points behind the Kings. The Kings are 6-0-1 in their past seven games and have gone 14-3-3 in their past 20, their .775 mark representing the best points percentage in the NHL since Jan. 22.

“We’ve played well throughout, since after the break, and I think everybody has been involved,” winger Viktor Arvidsson said. “We’ve got to keep that going and keep competing hard.”

Center Blake Lizotte, defenseman Drew Doughty, winger Alex Iafallo and forward Trevor Moore scored for the Kings before forward Quinton Byfield added an empty-net goal. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov contributed two assists, and Joonas Korpisalo improved to a perfect 3-0-0 as a King, making 26 saves. He’s allowed exactly two goals in each of his three starts.

Winger Pierre Engvall and center Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Islanders. Defenseman Ryan Pulock added two assists, and Ilya Sorokin had 32 saves in defeat.

Two of the final three minutes of the game placed the Kings a man or more down, but they killed a late infraction, even with Sorokin pulled for a sixth attacker, and the player who committed it, Byfield, deposited the empty-netter upon departing the penalty box.

With around 7:30 remaining, Korpisalo made a key save on former Ducks winger Kyle Palmieri before defenseman Mikey Anderson averted a likely goal by disrupting a pass to the backdoor for marquee trade acquisition Bo Horvat. In six matches since the Kings acquired Gavrikov and Korpisalo, they have given up just 11 regulation-time goals and no more than two in any given game.

“That’s a pretty good defensive commitment by everybody,” Coach Todd McLellan said.

With 2:58 left in the second period, the Islanders got a goal back just after their power play expired. Defenseman Sebastian Aho’s low-flying shot from the point was redirected upward and in at the last instant by Pageau. Pageau played his first game since sustaining an upper-body injury on Feb. 11, and he’d played in 17 games since he last scored, part of a two-goal performance on Jan. 3.

The Kings further separated themselves with a goal 12:14 into the second period. A defensive-zone draw win and some dogged forechecking built a play that culminated in Moore’s goal from just inside the left faceoff circle. Moore exalted after the goal, his first since Dec. 1, with an expression McLellan described as “joy and happiness, of course, but a lot of relief, too.” Though Moore was injured for two stretches during that period, he had gone 18 games without a goal while producing just four assists.

“It weighs on you, when you don’t get one for a while, then getting hurt and being out for a long time, it feels like maybe you’ll never score again,” Moore said. “Just to be able to get one and know you can still do it is a nice feeling.”

Momentum had swung on special teams as the Kings emerged from a post-whistle scrum with a power play and, 30 seconds later, a two-man advantage thanks to winger Zach Parise’s tripping minor. After failing to cash in on 13 consecutive chances a man or more up, the Kings got both a go-ahead goal and an insurance marker from their power play, and they did it against one of the NHL’s best penalty-killing units.

They cushioned their lead four seconds before the Parise penalty elapsed. A keep-in by winger Arthur Kaliyev, a slot shot from Arvidsson and a putback for Iafallo that became his 10th goal of the season afforded the Kings some breathing room a minute after they had taken their first lead.

At the 6:06 mark of the second period, winger Adrian Kempe moved the puck high to center Anze Kopitar, whose point-to-point pass set up a Doughty one-timer goal. Three of Doughty’s four goals this season have come on the power play.

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“It was sharper today. People were making plays that we needed on the power play; I think we needed to be creative,” Arvidsson said.

The Kings deadlocked the score after 1:54 passed in the middle frame. Winger Gabe Vilardi won possession off the faceoff, heaving the puck back to defenseman Sean Walker for a shot that Lizotte tipped home. His 10th goal of the season equaled his career high from last year.

The Islanders scored the first period’s solitary goal 11:45 into the match when Pulock won a neutral-zone puck battle against Lizotte. His pass ahead sent Engvall in for a shot from the slot that clipped Korpisalo on its way into the net. Engvall, who was dealt from Toronto near the trade deadline, scored his 14th goal of the season and his second in the past two games.

With the Kings rolling, especially at home where they’ve gone 7-0-1 in their last eight outings, it might come as something of a surprise that the outside noise has hummed at such a modest volume.

“We’re fine where we are,” McLellan said. “It’s just about us doing what we do, day after day after day, rinse and repeat, simple.”