Panarin scores 1st goal for Kings in win against Islanders

Artemi Panarin scored his first goal for the Los Angeles Kings, who got their first win under coach D.J. Smith by defeating the New York Islanders 5-3 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Panarin, who also had an assist, has five points (one goal, four assists) in five games since being acquired from the New York Rangers on Feb. 4. Smith was coaching in his second game since he took over on an interim basis after Jim Hiller was fired on Sunday.

Anze Kopitar had an assist in his 1,500th NHL game, and Adrian Kempe and Mikey Anderson each had a goal and an assist for the Kings (25-22-14), who won for the second time in eight games (2-5-1). Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves, and Brandt Clarke had two assists.

“Every time you have a coaching change, you got to look yourself in the mirror, too,” Kopitar said. “Obviously, we haven’t been performing up to our standards, and we have 20-plus games to salvage the season and squeak into the playoffs. It’s all or nothing now, and we got to play with desperation, and I think we’ve been showing that on the ice.”

Adam Pelech had a short-handed goal, Bo Horvat and Emil Heineman also scored, and Ilya Sorokin made 30 saves for the Islanders (35-23-5), who were playing the second game of a back-to-back after losing 5-1 at the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.

“We weren’t closing quick enough in our own end,” Horvat said. “They were getting on us, they were getting on our 'D.' Our forwards weren’t closing quick enough. ... Sorokin made some unbelievable saves there in the first period or it could have been a lot worse.”

Panarin gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 3:17 of the first period. Kopitar won a battle along the right boards with Matthew Schaefer and sent a cross-ice pass to a wide-open Panarin, who took his time before beating Sorokin blocker side from the bottom of the left circle.

“[Panarin has] been solid, obviously,” Kopitar said. "Gave us a spark on the power play, which is always welcome, and we’ve been making some plays, spending more time in the O-zone, so that’s certainly a positive.”

Kopitar is the 25th player in League history to play in 1,500 games, the ninth to appear in that many games for one franchise, and the fifth born outside of North America to reach the milestone.

He also has 1,303 career points (446 goals, 857 assists), four away from tying Marcel Dionne for the Kings' franchise record.

“Like I said, I’m very honored to be a part of this team, this organization for this long,” Kopitar said. “Obviously, we had some thin years, some winning years, so it’s been good so far. And I’m looking forward to playing out these 22, 20, whatever games we got left, and we’ll see where that takes us.”

Samuel Helenius made it 2-0 at 14:20 of the second period. He checked Carson Soucy along the boards below the goal line to help force a turnover before scoring his fourth goal of the season on a wrist shot from the left circle.

“The fourth line there, the dogs, they just forecheck and forecheck and forecheck, and they work,” Smith said.

The Kings extended their lead to 3-0 at 15:51 when Anderson scored through traffic with a slap shot from above the left circle.

Horvat cut it to 3-1 in the final second of the period. With 1.0 second left on the clock, Jean-Gabriel Pageau won a face-off in the left circle back to Horvat, who quickly scored off the far post past Kuemper's glove with 0.2 seconds remaining.

“You got four guys in front of the net, you got the centerman you want out there, that typically doesn’t happen,” Smith said. “But I said to the guys they probably deserved one or two in that period, and then maybe they don’t deserve that, so the hockey gods, that’s just what happens.”

Alex Laferriere pushed the lead to 4-1 while on a power play at 2:30 of the third period. He skated the length of the ice through three Islanders defenders before scoring with a wrist shot from the right circle.

Pelech cut it to 4-2 with his short-handed goal at 4:30, finishing off a 2-on-1 rush with Pageau with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Kempe tapped in Clarke’s backdoor pass at the left post to make it 5-2 at 8:30.

Heineman got the Islanders to within 5-3 with 1:59 remaining, tipping in Schaefer’s long shot with Sorokin pulled for an extra attacker.

“I love the fact that our guys are resilient,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “We had plenty of chances to lay off a little bit, but what I love about our group is we don’t let circumstances affect us. We stick to our habits.”