David Rittich makes most of rare start, shuts out Islanders

David Rittich, making his first appearance since Feb. 26, stopped all 26 shots he faced Monday night for the host Los Angeles Kings, who cooled off the New York Islanders 3-0.

Rittich, who sat the previous six games behind Cam Talbot, notched his second shutout of the season. He also made 26 saves in a 4-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 10.

Adrian Kempe, Philip Danault and Trevor Moore scored for the Kings, who took over sole possession of third place in the Pacific Division, two points ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights.

Ilya Sorokin recorded 22 saves for the Islanders, whose six-game winning streak was snapped. The winning streak was the longest for New York since a nine-game run from Feb. 28 through Mar. 14, 2021.

The Islanders, who would have moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division with a win, instead sit in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. New York is tied for the second wild card with the Detroit Red Wings, who have the tiebreaker by virtue of a 23-21 edge in regulation wins.

The Islanders outshot the Kings 7-5 in a scoreless first before Rittich turned back a shot by Hudson Fasching to begin the end-to-end sequence that ended with Kempe's goal 7:14 into the second.

Jordan Spence fed Kempe with a pass as Kempe neared the Islanders zone before Kempe shuffled the puck and fired a shot that glanced off the stick of New York defenseman Mike Reilly and fluttered over Sorokin's glove hand.

Danault had an angled shot turned back by Sorokin seconds before he doubled the lead early in the third. The Kings retained possession and Danault, stationed in front of Sorokin, got his stick on a rebound of another angled shot by Moore at the 6:07 mark.

The Islanders pulled Sorokin with less than three minutes to go but recorded just one shot before Moore scored an empty-netter with 2:22 left.

—Field Level Media