Sports

Tavares, Greiss Lead Islanders To 5-2 Win Over Kings

February 11, 2016 / 6:55 PM PST / KCAL News

LOS ANGELES (AP) — John Tavares had a goal and an assist, Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots and the New York Islanders scored three times in the first 14 minutes and beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 on Thursday night.

Johnny Boychuk, Casey Cizikas and Anders Lee all scored in the first period and Travis Hamonic added an empty-netter in the third to help the Islanders win their third straight overall and third in a row at home. New York improved to 15-4-2 against Western Conference teams this season and moved three points behind the crosstown-rival Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.

Kyle Clifford and Milan Lucic scored, and Jhonas Enroth finished with 25 saves for the Pacific Division-leading Kings, who had won three straight on the road. Los Angeles was coming off a 9-2 win at Boston on Tuesday night in the opener of a seven-game, 12-day road trip.

After Clifford got the Kings on the scoreboard with less than nine minutes left in the second, Tavares restored the Islanders' three-goal lead 2:20 later. It was the New York captain's 20th goal of the season as he reached that mark for the sixth time in his career.

Tavares got the puck in the neutral zone, skated across the blue line down the right side and wristed the puck past Enroth on the glove side with 6 1/2 minutes left in the second. He tied Brock Nelson for the team lead in goals and Kyle Okposo for points (43) and has a team-leading 11 multipoint games this season.

The Islanders earned a split of the teams' season series after a 2-1 loss at Los Angeles in November.

Boychuk, who got the Islanders started in their 8-1 win over Edmonton on Sunday, did it again in this game. Tavares took a pass from Mikhail Grabovski in the offensive zone, skated into the right faceoff circle, turned around and passed back to Boychuk, who fired it past Enroth on the glove side for his fifth of the season 6:05 into the game.

Cizikas doubled the lead a little more than five minutes later. Matt Martin took a slap shot from the left faceoff circle that Enroth stopped. However, the puck rebounded right to Cizikas in front on the right side and he fired it past the goalie for his fifth of the season with 8:41 left.

Lee made it 3-0 on the power play just 2:17 later from right in front as he tipped a slap shot through traffic by Nick Leddy past Enroth for his ninth. Okposo also had an assist on the play, giving him a team-leading 28.

Jeff Carter had a shot ring off the left post in the final minute of the first period, and Dustin Brown also hit a post about eight minutes into the second.

Clifford pulled the Kings to 3-1 with 8:50 left in the second with his first goal of the season. Greiss tried to smother his initial shot, but Clifford kept jamming at the puck and it trickled across the goal line.

Lucic made it 4-2 near the midpoint of the third with his 14th goal. Carter's shot was stopped by Greiss, but the puck bounced out and appeared to deflect in off Lucic's skate and stick. The goal was upheld after a video review.

After a penalty on the Islanders' Nikolay Kulemin for playing with a broken stick, the Kings pulled Enroth for a sixth skater but Hamonic scored a short-handed empty-netter with 3:25 left.

NOTES: G Jonathan Quick, third in NHL with 28 wins, sat out after sustaining a lower-body injury late in the Kings' 9-2 win at Boston on Tuesday night. He missed practice on Wednesday and is day to day. ... Los Angeles also scratched D Jamie McBain, D Nick Shore and LW Tanner Pearson. ... Carter remained three goals away from 300 for his career. ... Leddy has six assists in his last six games. ... Tavares has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in his last eight games. ... Grabovski's assist on Boychuk's goal was his 296th career point. He also has three goals and two assists in his last six games.