Two Disallowed Goals and Special Teams Sinks NY Islanders 4-1 in Los Angeles

There's bad luck, there's bad breaks, and then there's bad play. The New York Islanders had a little of all three on Tuesday as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Isles 4-1 at Crypto.com Arena. Phillip Danault and Quinton Byfield scored in the second period while Vladislav Gavrikov scored a PP goal in the first and Drew Doughty scored an empty-netter, helping the Kings secure their third straight victory after a five-game winless streak (0-3-2). Anders Lee scored the lone goal for the Islanders, while Ilya Sorokin stopped 28 shots as the Isles dropped their second straight to end their three-game California road trip. Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves to earn his 20th win of the season.

The Islanders went 0-for-8 on the power-play for the first time since 2008 and had two goals disallowed in the second period. The first came when Simon Holmstrom interfered with Kuemper after his initial shot was stopped. Anthony Duclair picked up the loose puck for appeared to be the tying goal, only for it to be challenged and reversed. Later when trailing 3-1 late in the period, Lee was denied his second goal of the game seconds into a power-play when his skate slightly made contact with the Kuemper before he roofed a back-hand over the goaltender's shoulder.

Earlier in the second, while with the man advantage, Tony DeAngelo's stick broke when receiving a pass at the blue line, sending Byfield on a short-handed breakaway that extended the lead with six minutes to go in the period. “How many times do you see a [player] on the power play receive a pass, get a broken stick and get scored on,” head coach Patrick Roy said after the game. “It’s hard to believe sometimes, but those things happen.”

It was a frustrating night in a frustrating season. The Islanders created 19 high danger chances to the 10 from the Kings, but were unable to capitalize and the Los Angeles made the most of their opportunities and the breaks afforded to them.

“I don’t think the scoresheet tells the story,” defenseman Noah Dobson said. “We had two taken back, we had a lot of pucks to the net, a lot of chances. It wasn’t going in tonight for us. It’s unfortunate. We have to find a way to capitalize because it was the difference.”

The Islanders return home on Friday night to host the Edmonton Oilers at 7:30 PM EST.