3 Takeaways: Islanders' Comeback Falls Short in 3-2 Loss to Kings

The New York Islanders dropped a 3-2 result to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at UBS Arena in the first meeting between the clubs since Feb. 6, 2020.
Mathew Barzal and Casey Cizikas scored late third-period goals for the Islanders, while Semyon Varlamov made 27 saves on 29 shots in the loss.

Adrian Kempe's empty-net goal held up for the eventual game winner, Quinton Byfield scored his first-career goal and Andreas Athanasiou lit the lamp for the Kings. LA captain Anze Kopitar dished out two assists while Cal Petersen made 23 saves on 25 shots in the victory.
The final score conveyed a far different game than what was actually played between the cross-coast opponents. For the majority of the game, the Kings held a 2-0 lead.
The Kings entered the game with some buzz, even prior to puck drop, as they celebrated defenseman Drew Doughty, who became the first player from the 2008 draft class to reach the illustrious 1,000 NHL game-milestone at age 32. The LA squad wore face masks with his toothless grin printed on as they entered UBS Arena and later donned black baseball hats with 1,000 written in silver during warmups.
That positive energy continued as the Kings dominated much of the game, but both teams made things interesting in the final minutes of play as they exchanged goals. LA was ultimately able to hold off the Islanders' late push in order to pick up the road win and two valuable points in the standings.
"LA had nothing tonight, they really didn't have much," Islanders Head Coach Barry Trotz said. "I thought we generated a little bit more. They defended well. They clogged it up, I thought they really defended well. It was hard to generate, they were looking for a low-scoring game. We generally do, we're not going to trade chances with some of the teams… Tonight, it was an even game, but I always felt like we were a little bit uphill chasing the game because they scored first."

ISLANDERS START SLOW, WHILE KINGS BURY SNIPES

The Islanders got off to a slow start and paid for it as they trailed the Kings down by a 1-0 score heading into the first intermission. LA established an assertive offense that outshot the Islanders 9-3 in the period.
The Islanders' best chance came on a 2-on-1 rush just over midway in the frame, but Adam Pelech's shot rang off the crossbar. In the waning minutes of the period, Byfield, who the Kings drafted second overall at the 2020 NHL Draft, buried his first-career goal in his 10-career game as he skated to the top of the left faceoff circle and released a blistering wrister over Varlamov's glove side.
KINGS 3, ISLANDERS 2
ISLANDERS ARTICLES
Gamecenter
Rapid Recap
ISLANDERS-KINGS VIDEO
Full Highlights

KINGER'S CALLS
Barzal's Sharp-Angle Shot
Cizikas' Late Strike
The Islanders executed a much better effort in the second period as they outshot the Kings 13-11, but found themselves trailing by a 2-0 deficit heading into the second intermission as LA capitalized on a stunning goal in the final five seconds of the frame.
For all the Islanders did right, as they generated a much more aggressive and revved up offense, they found themselves on the wrong side of the old cliche of the sport of hockey being, "a game of inches."
The Islanders did get a break as it seemed LA had taken a 2-0 lead on a wrist shot from Brendan Lemieux with under six minutes left in the period, but the goal was immediately called off as Blake Lizotte took a tripping penalty. On the Islanders first and only power play of the game, Robin Salo's point shot struck the post.
"You look at the two chances, we hit a crossbar and we hit a post," Trotz said. "Both [from] our defensemen. If those go in, it's a totally different game."
The final minute of the period proved to be a busy one as the Islanders nearly capitalized on a misplay - and subsequent netfront scramble - sparked by Kings defenseman Olli Matta with 26 seconds left in the period. That momentum was short-lived as Athanasiou doubled LA's lead 2-0 at 19:54. The centerman took a wide stride before sniping a sizzling sharp-angle shot over Varlamov's glove side for his second point (1G, 1A) of the game.
"I'm sure [Varlamov] would like to have one back tonight at the end of the period," Trotz said. "Those are a little bit deflating because you go into the period down one puck and now, you're down two pucks with a few seconds to go. That's not how you win. That's how you end up losing, the late goals in the period, giving up a shorthanded goal, those type of things aren't winning hockey."

DOWN TO THE WIRE

The Islanders pride themselves on their no-quit mentality, which was certainly on display in the dwindling minutes of the game. They pushed and pushed in the third period where they continued to generate offense, but the Kings didn't sit back with their 2-0 lead. Varlamov had to come up with some timely saves including a sequence of changes midway in the period by Trevor Moore.

Barzal made things interesting as the Islanders' pulled Varlamov from play in exchange for the extra skater. He cut the Islanders' deficit down 2-1 at 17:56 as he utilized a screen by Anders Lee to beat Petersen with a short side shot from a sharp-angle. The goal marked Barzal's ninth of the season and second in as many games.
With Varlamov still pulled, the Kings fought against the Islanders' desperate push to tie the game and force overtime. Kopitar was able to instigate a turnover and play Kempe in the neutral zone where the centerman scored on the open net to register his 18th goal of the season and what would be the eventual game-winning goal.
On a quick sequence up ice and out of their own zone with the game nearing its end, Cizikas beat Petersen for the Islanders' second goal of the game with 20 seconds on the clock. Andy Greene rimmed the puck out of the Islanders' zone for Cal Clutterbuck to touch it onto his linemate Matt Martin. Martin wired a cross-slot pass to a charging Cizikas, who scored his third goal of the season in an admirable - but not enough - final effort for the Islanders.
"Our concern is winning hockey games, and you have to score to do that," Lee said of the tough loss. "Tonight, we did generate some offense, but didn't go in the net and it can feel worse than it was. Any time you lose it doesn't feel good, but there is something we can take from it, but our MO (modus operandi), we're not scoring five goals a night, that hasn't been our team, never has been, we keep the puck out of the net, we win 3-2 hockey games, 2-1 games, that's been our team for a while."

PALMIERI RETURNS TO LINEUP

Ahead of warmup, Kyle Palmieri was activated off injured reserve and returned to the lineup for the first time since Dec. 16 and in turn, Austin Czarnik was placed on IR, retroactive to Saturday, Jan. 22 (upper body). After being sidelined since Dec. 16 with a lower-body ailment, Palmieri returned to the lineup for the Islanders. Prior to his injury, Palmieri had totaled seven points (1G, 6A) through 25 games.
In his return, the winger skated alongside Anthony Beauvillier and Brock Nelson in his return and logged 13:12 time on ice, fired off two shots on goal, threw one hit and was minus-one.
"Palmieri has missed a good portion of the season here, so we wanted to get him back in," Trotz said. "Once we hit the [All Star] break, there's nothing happening and then you come out of it and we're going every second night. We want to get some of these guys in and Palms being a guy who has cleared and said, 'I'm ready to go in when you want me to.' I put him in. He'll catch up to the train a little bit here as he has to."

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders continue their homestand as they host Seattle for the first-ever meeting between the clubs on Saturday afternoon at UBS Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 2 p.m.