ELMONT, NY — Brandt Clarke roofed a wrister over Semyon Varlamov with 2:17 left in overtime, and the Islanders dropped a game in which they dominated 3-2 to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night at UBS Arena.
Outshooting the Kings 43-27, the Islanders (5-3-1, 11 points) overturned a 2-0 deficit to force overtime and nab a point. Matthew Schaefer drew the Islanders level 7:06 into the third period with his first goal of the season — a snipe of a wrist shot that beat Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper blocker side and nestled just inside the left post.
Artemi Panarin, the former Ranger traded to the Kings at last year’s deadline, scored twice within the visitors’ first five shots of the game against Varlamov, who was making his first start at UBS Arena since Nov. 25, 2024.
He was caught cheating on the opener, expecting the forward to send a centering pass from tight in the right circle. Instead, he sent a shot snuck under the crossbar — one Varlamov would’ve liked to have had back.
“I was cheating a little bit, expecting him to make a pass in the middle,” Varlamov said. “Then he beat me short side.”
Just moments after the Islanders had a goal cleared off the line, Panarin nabbed his second with 3:23 left in the first when his wrist shot through traffic from the left circle squeaked under Varlamov’s arm and in. It was just the Kings’ fifth shot of the night.
It was also the last shot that Varlamov allowed, as the veteran netminder stopped the final 20 shots that came his way in regulation. That included a penalty shot save on Adrian Kempe roughly 11 minutes into the second period of what was, at the time, a 2-0 Kings lead. The save appeared to set things in motion for an Islanders team that had dominated the majority of the evening.
“That’s what great goalies do,” head coach Pete DeBoer said of Varlamov. “They shut the door and find a way to give your team a chance to get back in the game. I can’t point enough to the penalty shot. The game’s over if they score there. It’s 3-0 and the lights probably go out, and we go home. That was a huge save.”
Victor Eklund finally provided a breakthrough on the Islanders’ 31st shot of the night, wth 5:54 to go in the second and on the power play, when his one-timer from above the left circle squeaked through Kuemper’s five-hole.
Special teams was always going to favor New York on Thursday night, as the Kings’ penalty kill entered the game with the NHL’s second-worst unit (64%).
Schaefer tied the game 7:06 into the third period, potting home a feed from Logan Stanley at the blue line. The star second-year defenseman now has nine points in his first 10 games of the season.
Varlamov had to stand tall while the Kings upped some offensive pressure, including a pair of close-range saves on Samuel Helenius. After holding the Kings to 15 shots across the first two periods, Varlamov stopped 10 in the third.
“It’s not about how you start, it’s how you finish,” Varlamov said. “We lost the game, but we got a point. So I’m happy with a point.”
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