and plans to retire following the season<\/a>, scored his 448th goal to increase his career point total to 1,306, one shy of Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne (550 goals, 757 assists).<\/p>\n\u201cHe\u2019s the leader of this group and he\u2019s played really well,\u201d Kings interim coach D.J. Smith told NHL.com. \u201cHe continues to push. We have a goal of continuing to push and win games here to give ourselves a chance to get into the playoffs, so he\u2019s been a big reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian Kempe scored his team-leading 26th goal of the season and Trevor Moore also scored for the Kings (27-23-15), who got 21 saves from Darcy Kuemper and climbed into the final Western Conference wild-card spot with 69 points, one point ahead of the idle San Jose Sharks. The Kings are 2-0-1 so far on their five-game trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think guys are feeling better about our game again,\u201d Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson told NHL.com. \u201cIt (stinks) when (a coach gets fired), but sometimes it needs to happen for the group. I think the guys as a whole have responded well. You kind of find yourself in a little rhythm, playing better, a little more lively around the rink, on the bench. So, all positives. We just have to keep building on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emil Heineman scored twice and Bo Horvat added two assists, while Ilya Sorokin made 24 saves for the Islanders (37-24-5), who remained tied for second in the Metropolitan Division with the Pittsburgh Penguins at 79 points apiece. The teams are also tied with the Detroit Red Wings for the top Eastern Conference wild-card spot, one point ahead of the Boston Bruins.<\/p>\n
An Islanders turnover following Horvat\u2019s faceoff win with Quinton Byfield led to Moore\u2019s unassisted goal 3:33 into the first. Scott Mayfield collected the puck, but his shot was blocked by Moore, who surged in alone and beat Sorokin stick side.<\/p>\n
Kopitar doubled the lead with 6:53 left, when Mikey Anderson\u2019s shot from between the blue line and the left faceoff circle caromed to Kopitar, who tucked it into the net from the right crease.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s obviously one of the best 200-foot players ever,\u201d Kings forward Alex Turcotte told NHL.com. \u201cSo, yeah, he got the puck to me, I got it to Mikey, and then Mikey made a great play to him. And it\u2019s obviously pretty cool, playing with him. I\u2019ve learned so much. I didn\u2019t even know he was that close (to Dionne). So, it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another turnover helped the Kings go ahead 3-0 with 1:32 remaining. Artemi Panarin intercepted Matthew Schaefer\u2019s neutral-zone pass and passed to Kempe, who managed to get his stick on the puck while holding Brayden Schenn with his left arm before the puck fluttered past Sorokin.<\/p>\n
Kempe now has five goals and four assists in his last six games.<\/p>\n
Heineman began the Islanders\u2019 comeback attempt at 10:46 of the second period. The left winger, stationed in the slot, extended his stick to redirect Adam Pelech\u2019s shot, after which the puck bounced off the right post.<\/p>\n
Heineman scored in similar fashion 3:38 into the third, when Schaefer\u2019s shot glanced off Heineman\u2019s stick as he was gliding back to screen Kuemper.<\/p>\n
New York outshot the Kings 11-4 in the third, which ended with Joel Edmundson blocking Schaefer\u2019s shot just before time expired.<\/p>\n
After the game, the Islanders stayed on the ice and shook hands with Kopitar.<\/p>\n
UP NEXT<\/p>\n
The Kings play at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ELMONT, N.Y. \u2014 An\u017ee Kopitar inched closer to the Kings\u2019 franchise scoring record, contributing the second goal in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5110],"tags":[367,5,122,145,3328,159,5190,5189,4,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-502433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-anze-kopitar","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-islanders","11":"tag-los-angeles-kings","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-islanders","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkislanders","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116225629517325662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}