Instant Islanders: Takeaways From A 3-2 Overtime Win Over The Kings

Elmont, NY– The New York Islanders defeated the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in overtime on Saturday night.

Anders Lee sparked a late-game comeback by scoring twice for the Islanders in the third, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau finished the job with a goal 13 seconds into overtime. Cam Talbot made 27 saves for Los Angeles.

Ilya Sorokin stopped  34 shots in net for the Islanders, allowing goals to Adrian Kempe and Vladislav Gavrikov.

The final result improves the Islanders’ record to 12-7-7 and drops the Kings’ to 16-5-3, snapping their record of 11 straight wins on the road to begin a season.

But that’s just the box score. Here are the key takeaways from the night that was at UBS Arena.

Lee Leads The Way:

Anders Lee put together his first multi-goal performance of the season, scoring twice in the third period for the Islanders.

At 8:42 of the final frame, Lee buried a rebound created off a shot from Mike Reilly to get the Islanders on the board. Seven minutes later, Lee struck again to even the score.

The Islanders captain now has seven goals this season.

Slow Start, Strong Finish:

The Islanders took a little too long to get going against Los Angeles but salvaged a win with a strong performance in the final 20 minutes.

It wasn’t until Lee scored at 8:42 of the third period that they put a crooked number on the scoreboard.

The Islanders’ struggles late in games this year have been well-documented at his point. Lately, the narrative has been just the opposite.

Just as they did when facing the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, the Islanders found themselves hemmed in their own end through the second period against Los Angeles. The only difference was they never actually found their way out.

Both goals the Islanders allowed came in the second period while they were outshot 16-6.

Granted, a lot of that had to do with them being forced to kill off three penalties in the period.

Top Power Play Held Silent Against Top Penalty Kill:

The Islanders’ power-play has been much improved this year. In fact, it’s sixth in the league, operating at 26.1%, but it was no match for the Kings’ second-ranked penalty-killing unit.

The Islanders failed to score on all four chances they had on the power play, as their zone entries were disorganized at best and dysfunctional at worst. Even when they did set up in the attacking zone, rarely did the Islanders force Talblot to make a save, as they had just five shots on goal while playing with the man advantage.

Saturday night was the first time the Islanders had been held without a power-play goal in six games.

Penalty Kill On The Up Swing:

A few weeks ago, the Islanders’ penalty kill was spoiling all their other efforts. But in the last few weeks, the shorthanded unit has shown some resemblance to its usual caliber. The Islanders have killed off  22 of their last 25 shorthanded chances, including four of five against the Kings.

To make it all the more noteworthy, the Islanders’ recent run of shorthanded success has come without some of their best penaltykillers in the lineup.

The newly acquired Robert Bortuzzo slid in seamlessly in his Islanders debut in place of Ryan Pulock.

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