Saturday, February 26, 2022 10:30 PM (ET)

Fast start enables Kings to defeat Islanders

Field Level Media
Feb 27, 2022

Phillip Danault and Matt Roy scored fewer than five minutes apart early in the first period Saturday night for the host Los Angeles Kings, who remained red hot by cruising to a 5-2 win over the New York Islanders.

Quinton Byfield and Brendan Lemieux scored in the second period and Trevor Moore collected an empty-netter in the third for the Kings, who swept a back-to-back set -- they beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 on Friday night -- to extend their winning streak to five games.

Los Angeles remained three points behind the first-place Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division and increased its lead over the third-place Vegas Golden Knights to three points.

Kings goalie Cal Petersen made 26 saves.

Anders Lee scored in the second period and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored late in the third for the Islanders, who fell to 1-1-1 on a five-game Western Conference road trip.

New York also lost star center Mathew Barzal, who appeared to get his left leg twisted when he got tied up with Danault with 8:25 left in the second. Barzal needed help getting off the ice yet returned just three minutes later, but he played one shift before heading back to the locker room.

Semyon Varlamov recorded 30 saves for the Islanders.

Danault opened the scoring 3:43 into the first when he took a pass from Trevor Moore -- who was being hooked from behind by Noah Dobson -- and fired a shot into the upper left corner of the net. Roy doubled the lead just 4:08 later by placing a shot under Varlamov's stick arm.

Byfield was credited with an unusual unassisted goal after losing a faceoff to Brock Nelson deep in the Islanders' zone. The puck bounced from Nelson and off teammates Cal Clutterbuck and Adam Pelech before fluttering past Varlamov 56 seconds into the middle period.

Lee beat a diving Peterson at the 9:47 mark of the second, but Lemieux -- accompanied across the ice by Blake Lizotte with Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield in between -- beat Varlamov on a two-on-one rush with 28.3 seconds left.

Pageau scored with 1:16 left in the game before Moore added an empty-netter 59 seconds later.

--Field Level Media

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