The Upshot: LA Kings blank the NY Islanders 3-0; snap six game winning streak

HOW IT HAPPENED

Behind 26 saves from David Rittich, the Los Angeles Kings shut out the New York Islanders 3-0 on Monday night, snapping the Isles's six-game winning streak, which had them in a playoff spot at the start of the night. Adrian Kempe scored his 20th goal of the season in the second period, and Philip Danualt extended the lead in the third. Trevor Moore had an assist and an empty net goal for the Kings (33-20-11), who went 3-1-1 during a five-game homestand. Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves for the Islanders (29-21-14), who are now ninth in the Eastern Conference, having played the same amount of games as the Detroit Red Wings but with fewer regulation wins.

WHAT WENT RIGHT

Despite the final score, the Islanders played a mostly even game against a quality opponent on the road. The game was scoreless near the midway point of the second period and was a one-goal game to start the the third. The winning streak ended, but the team and coach remained confident as a lot of the good things in their game were still on display last night, they just didn't get the result.

“We’re playing good hockey, and that’s the important thing to me. I mean, we played a good hockey game here. … It was 1-0 until midway of the third period," coach Patrick Roy said. "Honestly, I am very pleased with the effort, the back-checking, how we compete with them. It was playoff hockey.”

WHAT WENT WRONG

The power play was the Islanders' best chance to seize momentum and get a point on Monday night, but they failed to convert on any of their five opportunities against the best penalty-kill unit in the league. This included a 5-on-3 that abruptly ended when Mathew Barzal was whistled for a different type of slashing penalty. They still had 43 seconds at 4-on-3 but couldn't break through.

“If our power play would have clicked, maybe it would have made a difference,” said Roy. “We needed more traffic. When the puck is not moving as well as we wish on the power play, we need to do things a little different [sic] and get more traffic in front of the net (rather) than try to be a little fancy around and try to play around.”

STATS OF THE GAME

Per Eric Hornick in The Skinny, Kyle Palmieri played his 800th NHL game, while Jean-Gabriel Pageau played in his 700th NHL game. Meanwhile, Cal Clutterbuck, who skated in his 1,000th earlier this season, became the 13th player in club history to play 700 games for the Isles.

SOCIAL MEDIA MOMENT OF THE GAME

We'll go to before the game, NHL on TNT studio host Liam McHugh gifted analyst Paul Bissonnette a Butch Goring tee-shirt from Isles Lab for his birthday that Biz "proudly" wore later in the day.

WHAT'S NEXT

The Islanders head back across the country to close out their four-game road trip when they battle the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night. Face-off is set for 7:00 PM EST.