Kings Get Back Into the Win Column With 5-2 Victory Over Islanders

The Los Angeles Kings got back into the win column Tuesday, beating the New York Islanders 5-2.

Early signs for the Kings indicated that their connectivity issues from Saturday had been fixed, but that was short lived.

The team's inability to connect on passes and overall lack of polish came back quickly. 

This would bite them 11 minutes into the game. Sean Walker cleared the puck to center ice and after winning a board battle, Blake Lizotte sent the puck back into the Kings zone to nobody. 

Pierre Engvall picked off the errant pass and beat Joonas Korpisalo on the two-on-one.

It's one Korpisalo would like back, he got a big piece of it with his glove but let it trickle past him.

The Kings' continued to struggle with their passing but seemed to up their intensity after the goal.

The Kings couldn't answer back in the first period but did have a few chances.

Both Rasmus Kupari and Arthur Kaliyev had a good chance that Ilya Sorokin turned away. And Gabe Vilardi had a strong look early in the period.

The Kings didn't waste time getting back into the game, scoring just under two minutes into the period.

It was redemption for Walker and Lizotte. With the latter tipping home the former's point shot to beat Sorokin.

A few minutes later, a scrum in front between both teams fourth lines ended with the Kings on a power play.

Kupari and Alexander Romanov got into a shoving match and went off together. But Matt Martin earned an extra minor after throwing Kupari's helmet on his way back to the bench.

Just 30 seconds into the power play, Zach Parise caught Vilardi with an accidental knee that put the Kings on a five-on-three.

On the five-on-three, the Kings collapsed the Islanders penalty kill and set Drew Doughty up with a one-timer from the left faceoff circle.

Doughty made no mistake and wired the puck over Sorokin's shoulder to give the Kings the lead.

Exactly one minute later the Kings extended their lead to two. Still on the power play, Viktor Arvidsson beat Sorokin from the slot and rang the iron. The puck then fell right to Alex Iafallo on the side of the net who deposited the rebound.

Trevor Moore then got in on the action just five minutes later. After receiving a pass from Phil Danault in the slot, Moore beat Sorokin over the shoulder to extend the lead to three.

It was Moore's first goal since Dec. 1, and his first goal since going down with an injury in late December.

The Kings controlled play for most of the period, but a sloppy turnover and penalty from Quinton Byfield put them on the penalty kill late.

A nice slap-pass from Sebastian Aho was tipped by Jean-Gabriel Pageau in front to cut the lead to two.

After the goal, the Islanders grabbed the momentum and forced Korpisalo into making a desperation save with less than one minute remaining.

The Kings were able to enter the intermission up two but without any momentum.

The third period didn't have the same explosive nature as the second.

The Kings were more than happy to fall back into a more defensive structure and hold onto their two goal lead.

They still had a few chances but weren't taking unnecessary risks.

After letting in a slightly soft first goal, Korpisalo found his game in the third period.

He came up with several big time saves in the last 10 minutes.

A few double saves and post-to-post saves kept the Kings lead safe late.

Things got a little scary for the Kings with three minutes left after a delay of game penalty on Byfield.

The Kings were able to kill the penalty though and Byfield deposited the empty netter for his third of the season and some redemption.

The Kings came away 5-2 winners in a game that was closer than the score indicated, but they'll only care about two big points at home.