Kings edge Islanders 3-2 on Clarke goal in overtime
Allan Kreda
Host · Writer
NEW YORK — The Kings finally won a game two nights ago to start their four-game road trip and they continued that spirit on Long Island.
It was the Artemi Panarin show – plus overtime help from Brandt Clarke on Thursday night as Los Angeles downed the New York Islanders 3-2 as Darcy Kuemper made 41 saves for his second straight victory.
Clarke scored at 2:43 of overtime, his second goal this season.
Panarin opened the scoring at 5:51 of the first, beating Islanders backup netminder Semyon Varlmov from a sharp angle.
The veteran sharpshooter scored again at 16:37, his sixth goal this season, to give the visitors a 2-0 lead into first intermission.
Panarin, who turns 35 on Oct. 30, has scored all five Kings road games. Luc Robitaille was the previous Los Angeles player with a such a streak – in October 1999.
Panarin joined the Kings in a late season trade from the New York Rangers and scored his first goal for Los Angeles against the Islanders in a 5-3 home win on March 5.
Considering his seven seasons as a scoring machine for the Rangers, the Russian forward was booed loudly by the UBS crowd when his name was announced after both goals.
In 43 career regular-season games against the Islanders, Panarin has 52 points (21 goals and 31 assists) giving him the second-highest average points per game among active NHLers to play the Islanders at least 40 times. Only Sidney Crosby has a better average per game.
The Kings had a golden chance to take a three-goal lead at 10:59 of the middle period when Adrian Kempe was awarded a penalty shot but he was denied by Varlamov.
The Islanders solved Keumper when rookie Victor Eklund scored at 16:37 of the second.
Defenseman Matthew Schaefer, last season's Calder Trophy winner, then tied the contest with his first goal this season at 7:06 of the third.
The Kings were 1-4-2 coming off Tuesday's 5-2 win at Washington in which Panarin had a goal and two assists.
Los Angeles entered the contest with a 9-0-1 mark in their last 10 visits to Long Island and they kept that streak going as well.
The game also marked the New York-area return for former Rangers and Islanders coach Peter Laviolette, who took over behind the Kings bench last summer.
Laviolette coached the Rangers for two seasons before he was let go after New York missed the playoffs in 2024-25. The 61-year-old Laviolette was behind the Islanders bench at the start his coaching career more than two decades ago.
