Islanders extend winning streak to three games

NEW YORK -- John Tavares had a goal and an assist to help the New York Islanders win their third straight game, 5-2 against the Los Angeles Kings at Barclays Center on Thursday.
Tavares, who scored his 20th goal of the season, increased his point streak to four games and has five goals and 12 points in the past eight games.

"I just want more. I don't want to stop [at 20 goals]," Tavares said. "Hopefully 20 more would be great to help this team out. We just have to keep going off the momentum, one game at a time. That's what's important. This time of year, so much hockey, we are playing so many teams and points are crucial, so we want to keep going."

The Islanders (29-18-6) scored three times on 13 first-period shots against Kings goalie Jhonas Enroth, getting goals from defenseman Johnny Boychuk and forwards Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee.
The Islanders took a 1-0 lead on a one-timer by Boychuk off a pass from Tavares at 6:05. Tavares went into the Kings zone and skated to the right faceoff circle before curling and passing back to Boychuk.
Cizikas scored at 11:19 to make it 2-0 off a rebound of a shot by Matt Martin for his first goal in 28 games. Lee scored on a tip-in at 13:36 on the power play to give New York a 3-0 lead.
The Islanders moved within three points of the New York Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
"If you look at the standings right now, you see where everybody's at," Cizikas said. "These two points are huge. We've got to continue winning these games, come out with the effort that we did tonight. ... We can't relax. We've got to keep going forward here. We have a big end of February and March where [we have] games pretty much every night. So we've got to [continue] playing the way we are and not get away from that."

The Kings (32-18-3) scored at 11:10 of the first period on Kyle Clifford's first goal of the season, but Tavares made it 4-1 less than three minutes later.
"It's unfortunate. We were not ready to play and we get down 3-0," Los Angeles forward Milan Lucic said. "You look at the rest of the game and I think without the empty-netter, we outscored them 2-1, but when you are not ready to play and you get yourself behind the eight ball like that down by three goals, it's hard to dig your way out of it."
Lucic made it 4-2 at 9:51 of the third period when the puck hit off his skate and went past goalie Thomas Greiss. After a video review to determine if Lucic used a distinct kicking motion, the call on the ice stood for his 14th goal of the season.
Enroth started because Jonathan Quick was scratched after he was injured in a 9-2 win against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. Enroth made 25 saves in his first start since Jan. 24.

Los Angeles is 1-1-0 on a season-high seven-game road trip.
"Every game is tough [to lose]," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "We've had a good season and hopefully we have a good trip."
Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic scored a shorthanded empty-net goal with 3:25 remaining. The Kings pulled Enroth for a two-man advantage.
"I thought our goalie made some big saves (Greiss had 28). I thought we locked it down on occasion defensively in the third. ... Our special teams, our power play, our penalty kill came up big for us," Islanders coach Jack Capuano said.

New York was 1-for-4 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The Kings play the Rangers on Friday and are 14-6-0 this season coming off a loss.
"We've been a really good team at bouncing back this year and that's what we have to do again heading into [Friday] night," Lucic said.
Kings defenseman Kevin Gravel made his NHL debut, replacing Christian Ehrhoff, who was waived and was assigned to Ontario of the American Hockey League on Thursday. Gravel played 10:46 and did not have a shot on goal.