The Kings got back in the win column on Monday night as they closed out their five-game home stand with a record of 3-1-1. Shutting the New York Islanders out 3-0, the Kings retook a two-point lead over the Vegas Golden Knights for that third seed in the Pacific Division standings.
It took 27:14 of gameplay for the game’s first goal on Monday, but boy was it worth it. Playing in his second game since returning from an upper-body injury, Adrian Kempe buried his 20th goal of the season with a perfectly placed wrist shot to give the Kings the eventual game-winning goal. This season marks Kempe’s third straight campaign scoring at least 20 goals, the most such-seasons by any Swedish-born player in Kings franchise history. With the goal, Kempe (2GP, 2-0=2) also joins Juha Widing (5GP 2-2=4, 1973-74) as only the second Swedish-born Kings skater to score two goals against the Islanders within a single season.
Still up 1-0 entering the third period, the Kings then doubled their lead at the 6:07 mark when Trevor Moore centered the puck through the crease and connected with Phillip Danault for a tap-in goal. Moore then picked up his second point of the night with an empty net goal with 2:22 remaining in the game. With the goal, Moore becomes the 13th different undrafted skater in franchise history to record a 25-goal season, and the first to do so since Wayne Gretzky (38-92=130) in 1993-94.
In net for the Kings picking up his second shutout of the season was David Rittich, who stopped all 26 shots faced. Rittich now holds a record of 10-4-3.
Notably, the Kings killed off all five Islanders power plays, including an abbreviated 5-on-3 and 4-on-3 power play.
