Islanders no match for Kings as five-on-five struggles continue

The Islanders’ messy five-on-five game carried over from Sunday to Tuesday.

Their ability to overcome it did not.

This was a bit of a reality check for a club starting to wonder if it had turned the corner after securing back-to-back wins, getting within a third straight victory of a playoff spot and finding some needed confidence on its special teams. The final was 3-1 to the Kings on Tuesday night at UBS Arena, and though the Islanders can take solace from a strong push in the back half of the game in which they got within two posts of tying it up, they will need to be better than this to hang with the NHL’s upper echelon.

The Islanders looked disconnected at five-on-five for the first half of the game, struggling to complete passes and break the puck out, struggling in their retrievals and struggling to put the brakes on a Kings team which has now won six in a row.

“We had to take a breath,” captain Anders Lee said. “Just kinda settle in a little bit. The game was, I don’t want to say getting away, but we weren’t getting to it.”

They did settle in enough to make the Kings sweat during a frantic third period in which the ice was finally tilted their way. But that did not make up for starting the game nearly 30 minutes late.

That sunk the Islanders into a 2-0 hole, twice on plays where they were beaten in the area around their own net.

Adrian Kempe took advantage of the Kings’ sustained pressure in the first period, getting to the crease unimpeded while Max Tsyplakov was caught puck-watching to finish Anze Kopitar’s feed from behind the net 13:51 into the match.

Kevin Fiala doubled the lead with a shot that Ilya Sorokin never saw, as he attempted to look to the right around Sam Helenius’ screen and was beaten in the opposite direction.

“I think as a group, especially in the first, they dictated the play,” Kyle Palmieri said. “Physically, speed, just overall. We had to step it up and match them in a bunch of different categories after the start.”

Sorokin, who finished the night with 27 saves, spent significant parts of the game bailing out his teammates, who went 0-for-3 on the power play, including a third-period chance in which they could not come up with the tying goal.

Finally, some momentum came as Anders Lee finished Kyle Palmieri’s feed to the slot halfway through the second to make it 2-1. That was where it stood entering the third.

“I think Ilya first and foremost gave us a chance to get going,” Noah Dobson said. “He was tremendous all night, gave us a chance to get back in the game. I thought we just managed pucks better, got in on the forecheck, more O-zone time.”

Their late push did showcase a far better effort than earlier in the game, and a pair of shots off the post — one from Dobson and another from Bo Horvat — left the Isles feeling like they could have gotten something from this one.

So too did a late flurry of chances before Mikey Anderson sealed the result with an empty-netter.

“Let’s understand that feeling and understand what we were doing in that third, most of the second, and why we started having success and started rolling over,” Lee said. “Every line was going, playing smart hockey and doing it the right way.”

The concern — coming off a not-so-deserved win Sunday — ought to be that the Islanders are still struggling to put together 60 minutes.

On a night when they could have vaulted over the Rangers and into playoff position by getting just a point, it is a little fitting that is what continues to separate them from the right side of the cutline.