NY Islanders Fall to Kings to Conclude California Back-to-Back

The New York Islanders finished up their Southern California back-to-back with a 5-3 loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena.

Coming off a 5-1 defeat in Anaheim the night before, the Islanders battled back multiple times but could not overcome an early deficit. Bo Horvat, Adam Pelech and Emil Heineman scored for New York, while Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves.

Los Angeles opened the scoring early when Artemi Panarin netted his first goal since being acquired by the Kings, beating Sorokin at 3:17 of the first period. The Kings extended their lead late in the second with goals from Samuel Helenius and Mikey Anderson to take a 3-0 advantage.

The Islanders showed life just before the second intermission. With one second remaining, Jean-Gabriel Pageau won a faceoff back to Horvat, who quickly fired a shot past Darcy Kuemper to make it 3-1. “We weren’t closing quick enough in our own end,” Horvat said. “They were getting on us, getting on our defense. Our forwards weren’t closing quick enough.”

Los Angeles pushed the lead to 4-1 early in the third on a power-play goal by Alex Laferriere. Pelech responded with a short-handed goal off a 2-on-1 rush, but Adrian Kempe restored the three-goal cushion minutes later.

Heineman tipped in a late shot from Matthew Schaefer with the extra attacker to pull the Islanders within two, but the comeback attempt fell short.

“I love the fact that our guys are resilient,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We don’t let circumstances affect us.”

The NHL trade deadline is on Friday with the Islanders next taking the ice Saturday night against the San Jose Sharks before heading to St. Louis to close out the road trip.