LOS ANGELES — The Kings slammed the door and snapped a streak as they handed the New York Islanders their first loss in seven games behind David Rittich’s sixth career shutout and his second in black and silver.
They prevailed, 3-0, on Monday night at Crypto.com Arena to cut the power on the New York Islanders’ six-game surge and finish 3-1-1 on their five-game homestand.
Trevor Moore’s empty-netter was his team-leading 25th goal of the season after he had already assisted on Phillip Danault’s lead-cushioning tally. Adrian Kempe started the scoring for the Kings and reached the 20-goal mark for the third straight season on a night when top-pairing defender Mikey Anderson returned to action after missing eight games with an upper-body injury. Rittich finished with 26 saves to give the Kings their fifth shutout of the season.
Ilya Sorokin made 22 saves for the Islanders, who had won six straight games, including signature victories over the Dallas Stars and Boston Bruins, but could not add another link to their chain of victories after a 6-1 romp over the Ducks on Sunday.
Islanders coach Patrick Roy, a Hall of Fame goaltender known for yanking his own netminder from his cage early, pulled Sorokin in the 57th minute, though for the Isles it only portended an empty-net goal by Moore with 2:22 left.
The Kings entered the third period as owners of both a one-goal lead and a 23-0-3 record when leading at the second intermission, with one of those overtime losses coming to the Islanders in their only other meeting this season. In that game, they squandered a 2-0 lead in the third, but there was no such wastefulness on Monday.
The hosts took just over six minutes to extend their edge, with Danault winning the puck in the corner to commence a frenetic forechecking sequence that he halted with a jab-in goal from the doorstep, his 15th of the season. The puck hit Sorokin twice en route to Danault, who controlled it as he fended off the pestering of Noah Dobson at the netfront.
In the second period, the Kings drew a penalty but truncated their power play slightly with an infraction of their own, which led to a pair of short-handed opportunities for Moore. They had already scored the only goal of the game to that point at the 7:14 mark.
A low-event game gave way to end-to-end action as an Islanders counterattack foiled by Rittch sent the Kings back the other way. A smooth outlet pass by Jordan Spence sent Kempe ahead with speed for a gorgeous rising wrist shot to the short side for his 20th goal. Kempe poured in 35 and 41 goals, respectively, in his past two campaigns.
The opening 20 minutes were anything but a salvo, with the period’s best chance wiped away by Kempe’s goalie interference penalty, the first of three contested calls in succession, two against the Kings and one against the Islanders. Neither team scored during the special-teams situations, and they combined for just a dozen shots in a scoreless period.
More to come on this story.