Islanders halt 4-game losing streak, beat Kings in Los Angeles for first time since 2018

LOS ANG ELES — Parts of this game were like the famously horrible Los Angeles traffic, just a frustrating slog.

Not that the Islanders cared for aesthetics. Not when they needed two points so badly. They snapped a four-game winless streak with a 5-2 victory over the struggling Kings on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, all the while getting healthier with speedy forward Matias Maccelli and defensive stalwart Ryan Pulock returning to the lineup.

“We were more connected,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “We put two good players back in the lineup, which helps. Our goalie was great again and we cleaned up the things that we didn’t like about last game.”

“We’re built on being defensively structured, playing hard, playing the right way and winning games from our goalies out,” said Brayden Schenn, who notched a goal with two assists to give him two goals and five assists in a four-game point streak. “We’ve scored goals. [We were] relying on maybe trying to do that a little too much.”

This one did again start for the Islanders (8-6-4) with goalie Ilya Sorokin (26 saves), who turned in a third straight strong outing. Darcy Kuemper made just 16 saves for the Kings (5-10-2), who had not lost in regulation to the Islanders since Feb. 6, 2020, going 10-0-1 since then including a 3-2 overtime win at UBS Arena on Oct. 22. It was the Islanders’ first win in Los Angeles since 2018.

“He’s been so good for us,” captain Bo Horvat told Newsday about Sorokin after capping the scoring with an empty-net goal. “I can’t stop talking about how good he is. For us to finally play a little bit better in front of him [was needed]. There were still things we’ve got to work on. But, for the most part, we were solid and didn’t give up too many Grade-A [shots] for him.”

Yet even as Maccelli and Pulock returned, third-line center Jean-Gabriel Pageau was unavailable because of a lower-body issue. It led DeBoer to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen to manage Maccelli and Pulock’s ice time better.

The Islanders went 3-3-3 in Maccelli’s absence after he was hurt on Oct. 17 in Toronto. They were 0-2-2 without Pulock, who re-aggravated the shoulder injury that required offseason surgery on Oct. 29.

Pageau, who missed Tuesday’s practice in San Jose, tested himself during Thursday’s morning skate but was forced to exit halfway through the session.

“I don’t think it’s serious,” DeBoer said.

Pulock (two assists) and Maccelli (one assist) both made immediate impacts.

“I started feeling good in the third period again,” Maccelli said after logging 13:46 of ice time. “Now we’ve gotten rid of that little rust that I haven’t played in the last month so I should be good for next game.”

Pulock had a strong game at both ends of the ice and the defensive structure was sounder than the previous two games, Monday’s trip-opening 3-2 eight-round shootout loss to the Sharks and Saturday’s 5-4 overtime loss to the Devils at UBS Arena in which the Islanders gave up a season-high 50 shots and could not protect a two-goal lead in the third period to close out a disappointing 0-2-1 homestand.

“We scored some goals by going to the net and then we defended hard,” said Pulock, who logged 19:22. “We did a pretty good job of not spending a ton of time in our zone.”

Maccelli set up defenseman Matthew Schaefer’s power-play goal to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead at 12:56 of the first period. Schaefer, in his 100th NHL game, pinpointed a heavy wrist shot through a maze of bodies to the upper right corner as the Islanders notched a man-advantage goal for a second straight match after a 1-for-18 slump over six games.

Pulock had secondary assists as Schenn deposited the rebound of the defenseman’s blue-line blast to open the scoring at 5:50 of the first period and started the rush that led to rookie Victor Eklund’s fourth goal in four games after Schenn transported the puck to the crease at 5:35 of the second period.

The Kings’ Trevor Moore tied it at 1-1 at 8:55 of the first period on a deflection and Quinton Byfield’s five-on-three power-play goal cut it to 3-2 at 7:52 of the second period.

But Simon Holmstrom grabbed a loose puck high in the slot, turned to his forehand and lasered a wrist shot past Kuemper for a 4-2 lead 39 seconds into the third period.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.