Takeaways: Islanders Comeback Bid Comes Up Short in 3-2 Loss to Kings

The New York Islanders’ two-game winning streak came to a halt on Friday night, as the Isles fell 3-2 to the LA Kings at UBS Arena.

Emil Heineman scored two goals for the Islanders, who fell behind 3-0 for the second straight game, but could not complete a second-straight comeback.

Trevor Moore, Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and held on the rest of the way.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 24 of 27 shots in the loss, while Darcy Kuemper stopped 21 of 23 in the win.

With the loss, the Islanders (79 points) remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division, tied in points with the second place Pittsburgh Penguins (79), but the Pens hold a game in hand. The Columbus Blue Jackets (77 points) are two points back with a game in hand.

TAKEAWAYS

- Slow starts continue to be a trend for the Islanders, who found themselves trailing 3-0 in the first period. Friday marked the sixth time in the last eight games they’d trailed 2-0 in a contest and third time in four games they found themselves down 3-0.

Moore opened the scoring at the 3:33 mark of the first period, turning a blocked shot at the Kings’ blue line into breakaway and a high shot blocker side on Sorokin. Kopitar negated a good push from the Isles by tapping in a Mikey Anderson rebound at the far post to make it 2-0 and Kempe deflected an Artemi Panarin pass off the rush after an Isles turnover to make it 3-0 at 18:28.

“It wears on you having to come back all the time,” Bo Horvat said. “We have to find ways to get leads and hold leads. Going down the stretch here like that's tough, not only physically, but mentally to keep having to come back in games like that.”

- Head Coach Patrick Roy tried out some new line combos on Friday, with Mathew Barzal skating with Brayden Schenn and Ondrej Palat, while Cal Ritchie skated with Horvat and Emil Heinemen. With the Islanders struggling to generate, Roy made an in-game adjustment, flipping Barzal and Ritchie.

It paid off quickly, as the trio put the Islanders on the board 10:46 into the second period, with Heineman tipping an Adam Pelech shot. That line scored again in the third period, as Heineman tipped a Matthew Schaefer shot at 3:38 of the third period to make it a 3-2 game. It was the second two-goal game of the season for Heineman, and first since Oct. 23.

“Sometimes it’s just a gut feeling,” Roy said. “I felt like down three goals, I thought we had to do something and find a spark and just create that little spark that could make a difference.”

The second half of the game was all Islanders, who nearly tied it up with a Heineman shot off the post in the third period and outshot the Kings 11-4 in the final frame. While the shot totals finished 27-23 in favor of LA, Roy lamented that his team had 25 blocked shots and another 24 miss the net.

- Roy made another in-game adjustment, putting Max Shabanov alongside Schenn and Ritchie for the back half of the game, while Ondrej Palat skated with Casey Cizikas and Marc Gatcomb. Roy felt Shabanov’s skill could complement Schenn and Ritchie, while Palat’s straight-line style was a good fit with Cizikas and Gatcomb.

- Schaefer played a career-high 29:24 on Friday. He finished the game with 10 shot attempts (three on goal, four blocked and three missed) and notably mixed it up with Taylor Ward in a second period scrum. It was more wrestling and face-washing than an actual fight, but Schaefer’s spirit drew cheers from the UBS Arena crowd and props from teammates.

“He's a tough kid, and he handles himself really well on and off the ice,” Horvat said. “Obviously we'd like to get in there when you see that, and our guys did, but he could handle himself. He proved that tonight.”

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders are back in action on Saturday night when they host the Calgary Flames. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.