LOS ANGELES — Captain Anže Kopitar’s 1,500th NHL game also marked D.J. Smith’s first win as Kings head coach and Artemi Panarin’s first goal in black and silver.
The Kings dispensed with the New York Islanders, 5-3, on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, winning for the second time in three chances since breaking their season-long, five-game funk.
Kopitar is just the 25th player in more than a century of NHL competition to reach the 1,500-game mark and he could climb as high as 23rd all-time during this, his 20th and final campaign.
He joined Alex Delvecchio, Shane Doan, Gordie Howe, Nicklas Lidström, Alex Ovechkin and Steve Yzerman as the only players to play 1,500 or more games and their entire NHL careers with one franchise. Only two additional players, all-time games leader Patrick Marleau and legendary defenseman Ray Bourque, have played 1,500 games with a single franchise while also skating for a second organization.
“I’m very honored to be a part of this organization for this long. We had some thin years, we had some winning years, so it’s been good so far,” Kopitar said. “I’m looking forward to playing out these 21 games we’ve got left and seeing where that takes us.”
Panarin, Adrian Kempe and Mikey Anderson each had a goal and an assist. Alex Laferriere and Samuel Helenius also scored. Brandt Clarke contributed two assists and Kopitar recorded one to move within four points of Marcel Dionne for the franchise scoring lead. Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves.
J.G. Pageau had the only assists on goals by Bo Horvat and Adam Pelech for New York. Emil Heineman also scored. Ilya Sorokin didn’t help his Vezina Trophy candidacy with just 30 saves on 35 shots.
“It was a good game, we scored a few goals, so that’s a positive. We probably could have had a couple more,” Kopitar said.
In the final 20 minutes, the Kings wedged a goal allowed, at 4:30, between a pair of their own at the 2:30 and 8:30 marks, with the Isles then clawing back a goal six-on-five.
Islanders coach Patrick Roy, the former goaltending deity, pulled his puck-stopper with around 8:30 to play for the second straight night. New York defended its vacated cage effectively for the entire time, but scored just once off a brilliant setup by Matthew Schaefer for Heineman’s deflection. They still lost both games after winning five in a row.
“They made me wait, for sure, [for my first head coaching win in nearly three years] with the goalie out there,” said Smith, joking that he might schedule a practice focused on shooting at the open net. “It was great, even though it wasn’t exactly the way I planned it with a buddy of mine leaving [former coach Jim Hiller, who was dismissed on Sunday].”
Kempe had sealed the Islanders’ fate with his franchise-leading 23rd goal of the season, tapping one in off the rush off a backdoor pass by Clarke.
“If we play like we did tonight with the effort, the way we played with the puck and off the puck, it’s going to help us to get in good positions,” Kempe said. “The window is getting smaller and smaller, so this is the time to get hot.”
The Isles scored shorthanded to cut their deficit back to two goals, as a sloppy Kings line change led to a two-on-one that was finished by Pelech.
Laferriere netted a goal, his 15th of the season, on the power play to make it 4-1. He received Clarke’s drop pass and burst through the neutral zone, then taking on three defenders to rip one past Sorokin.
The Isles pushed back early in the middle frame but fell down late before salvaging a goal with the unlikeliest of buzzer-beaters.
Just one second remained in the period where Pageau won an offensive-zone draw cleanly to Horvat, who let go of a searing wrister that left three tenths of a second on the clock after entering the net. The goal broke up Kuemper’s shutout and left the score at 3-1.
With 4:09 on the clock, Anderson scored his third goal of the season with a firm shot from the left point through a Kopitar screen.
Just 91 seconds earlier, the Kings made it 2-0 with a goal off the forecheck. Helenius detonated Carson Soucy and separated him from the puck below the goal line. That set in motion a sequence that sent the puck back to the big Finn for a goal from the inner part of the left circle, his fourth goal of the campaign.
The Kings dominated the first period to a tune of a 90% expected-goals-for share, per Natural Stat Trick, and got a goal to show for it. It was Panarin’s 20th of the campaign, 19 of those coming with the New York Rangers prior to being traded in February.
After Panarin’s shot attempt was blocked, Kopitar went into the corner with rookie sensation Schaefer, winning the puck from a man 20 years his junior. He alertly swept it across the slot to Panarin, who was so open in front that he could freeze his countryman Sorokin with a look to his right before rifling a shot to his left.
“He’s been solid,” Kopitar said of Panarin. “He gave us a spark on the power play, which is always welcome. We’ve been making some plays and spending more time in the ‘O’ zone, so that’s certainly a positive.”
On deck for the Kings is Friday’s noon PT trade deadline – when asked if he’d like General Manager Ken Holland to add at the deadline, Kopitar said “yes, of course” – and in the hole are the Montreal Canadiens for Saturday’s clash.