Rapid Recap: Kings 3, Islanders 2

The New York Islanders late comeback bid felt short on Thursday night, resulting in a 3-2 loss to the LA Kings at UBS Arena.
Quinton Byfield and Andreas Athanasiou gave the Kings a 2-0 lead, which held till the late stages of the game, until a three-goal flurry from Mathew Barzal, LA's Adrian Kempe (ENG) and Casey Cizikas added some drama down the stretch.
See below for the rapid recap and check back for Sasha Kandrach's three takeaways.

THE SCORING
1st Period:
17:05 - LAK 1, NYI 0 - Quinton Byfield scores his first-career NHL goal, skating into the zone, using Andy Greene as a screen and wristing a puck glove side on Semyon Varlamov.
2nd Period:
19:54 - LAK 2, NYI 0 - Andreas Athanasiou beats Varlamov from a sharp angle in the final seconds of the period. The goal was unassisted.
3rd Period:
17:56 - LAK 2, NYI 1 - Mathew Barzal picks a corner from the top of the circle, snapping a shot around an Anders Lee screen and Cal Petersen. Brock Nelson and Josh Bailey with the assists.
19:24 - LAK 3, NYI 1 - Adrian Kempe seals it with an empty-netter from center ice.
19:40 - LAK 3, NYI 2 - Not so fast. Casey Cizikas is sprung by Matt Martin, gets behind Drew Doughty and beats Petersen glove side.

NOTEBOOK
Kyle Palmieri returned to the lineup for the first time since Dec. 16, as the winger missed 10 games with a lower-body injury... Austin Czarnik was placed on IR in a corresponding move and Kieffer Bellows came out of the lineup. Palmieri played 13:12 with two shots and a hit... LA Kings defenseman Drew Doughty played in his 1,000th NHL game, all with the Kings. Doughty is the first player from the 2008 NHL Draft to hit 1,000 games. Josh Bailey (950 games) has the second-most games in the 2008 draft class... The loss snapped the Islanders five-game home winning streak against the Kings... Cal Clutterbuck had a game-high seven hits... JG Pageau went 11-6 in the face-off dot...
GOALTENDING MATCHUP
Semyon Varlamov stopped 25-of-27 shots.
Cal Petersen stopped 23-of-25 shots.
SPECIAL TEAMS
The Islanders were 0-for-1 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill.
IMAGE OF THE GAME

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT

NEXT GAME
The Islanders return to action on Saturday afternoon as they host the expansion Seattle Kraken. Puck drop is at 2 p.m.