Blake Lizotte, Drew Doughty and Alex Iafallo scored in a 5:12 span of the second period and the Los Angeles Kings held on for a 5-2 win against the visiting New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
Trevor Moore and Quinton Byfield also scored, Vladislav Gavrikov had two assists and Joonas Korpisalo made 26 saves for the Kings, who are 6-0-1 in their past seven games.
Pierre Engvall and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored, Ryan Pulock had two assists and Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves for the Islanders in the opener of a three-game California trip. New York took its second loss in a row.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead at 11:45 of the first period on Engvall’s wrist shot from the inside edge of the right circle.
The Kings scored four goals in the second period against Sorokin, who came in with the third-best save percentage in the NHL (.926).
Lizotte scored with a deflection to tie the score 1-1 at 1:54.
The Kings had one goal on their previous 22 power plays when New York winger Matt Martin received an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty for throwing Rasmus Kupari’s helmet, and the Islanders’ Zach Parise went to the penalty box 30 seconds later for knee-to-knee contact against Gabriel Vilardi.
Doughty scored on a one-timer from the left circle while on the five-on-three to give Los Angeles a 2-1 lead at 6:06. It was Doughty’s fourth goal of the season, and it ended a personal 22-game goal drought.
While still on the power play, the Kings made it 3-1 at 7:06. Viktor Arvidsson’s shot hit the post, hit Iafallo’s chest and fell in the crease, where Iafallo swiped it in the net before Sorokin could react.
Moore extended the lead to 4-1 with a wrist shot from the high slot at 12:14.
Pageau, who missed the previous 12 games due to an upper-body injury, scored with a redirection through Korpisalo’s pads to make it 4-2 at 17:02 of the second.
Byfield chipped the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty with 3:02 left in the third period. The Kings killed the penalty, and Byfield scored an empty-net goal exiting the box for a 5-2 lead with 53 seconds remaining.
–Field Level Media